Domestic Airline operators have hinted to Citi Business News prices of domestic airfares will soon be reduced following the performance of the cedi against major foreign currencies.
[contextly_sidebar id=”N0nmLjWMJWfLSDmIAa2mzk1oX3ga1XB7″]The cedi in the past weeks has appreciated against major foreign currencies including the dollar.
Its performance has been attributed to the weekly injection of some 20 million dollars into the economy by the Bank of Ghana.
Finance minister Seth Tekper yesterday in presenting the supplementary 2015 budget estimates to parliament assured that the cedi will remain relatively stable given further inflows expected into the economy.
Though most airlines had earlier complained about the rate of the depreciation of the cedi which they said was causing rising cost of operations eroding their profits and earnings in general, Chief Executive Officer of Starbow Airline James Eric Antwi in an interview with Citi Business News said the appreciation of the cedi against major currencies was good for the domestic airline industry.
“It is good for our business and if the cedi goes further down then we can even reduce the prices of the fares but anyway VAT has come in, so VAT will still keep it up a little bit. But I must say it is good for us because in our job the expenditure is about 85% dollar component.”
Chief Executive Officer of Starbow Airline James Eric Antwi affirmed to Citi Business News that if the cedi will stabilize and further appreciate against the major foreign currencies especially the dollar they will consider reducing air fares.
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By: Norvan Acquah – Hayford/citifmonline.com/Ghana