The Kumasi Airport, presently known as Nana Agyemang Prempeh I International Airport, is scheduled to open on May 10, 2024.
President Akufo-Addo will commission the project alongside the Asantehene, Otumfuo Osei Tutu II, the Minister of Transport, Kwaku Ofori Asiamah, and the Managing Director of the Ghana Airport Company Limited, Yvonne Nana Afriyie Opare, among other dignitaries.
After being commissioned on May 10, the Kumasi Airport is expected to be fully operational by June of this year.
The facility, presently managed by the Ghana Airport Company Limited, is now undergoing equipment testing for local and international flights.
With a capacity to handle over 800,000 people per year, largely from the northern and central belt regions, the airport is poised to fulfil the growing demand for air travel.
Contractors have announced intentions to enlarge the runway and destroy obsolete infrastructure once the new terminal is operating.
During a recent visit of the project with Ghana Airport Company Limited management and Board Members, Transport Minister Kwaku Ofori Asiamah expressed his pleasure with the development.
However, he raised worries about the facility’s long-term upkeep and emphasised its significance to the socioeconomic growth of the Ashanti Region and Ghana as a whole.
He said that the airport’s arrival will relieve the burden of foreign travelers from Ashanti, Bono, Ahafo, the Northern and Upper Regions of the country, as they will no longer need to go to Accra to access an international airport.
During a recent courtesy call to the Manhyia Palace by the transport minister and the Board and Management of the Ghana Airport Company Limited, Asantehene Otumfuo Osei Tutu II congratulated the government on the project’s completion.
He stated that given the Ashanti Region’s active economic activity, a project such as the International Airport will surely create jobs and strengthen the region’s local economy.
Phase II of the project, which began in 2018, comprises the construction of a new terminal building capable of handling one million passengers per year, two boarding bridges, a road network, a perimeter fence, a substation, and a parking lot, among others.
