KIA gets first standard certified airline repair facility

3AMS-CELMS is to operate Ghana’s first Maintenance Repair and Overhaul (MRO) facility at Kotoka International Airport.

The company, according to Ben Owusu – a Senior Aviation Safety Inspector and Manager at Quality Assurance – is nearing the completion of its certification process that was started some five years ago.

The GCAA, the aviation sector regulator, on March 29, 2022 gave permission for 3AMS-CELMS Limited to proceed to stage-four of the five-stage certification process.

Mr. Clifford Martey Korley, Managing Director of 3AMS-CELMS Limited, said when final certification is done the company will be able to repair and maintain single-aisle aircraft and Boeing 737s in Ghana and the West Africa sub-region.

This means domestic operators Africa World Airlines (AWA) and PassionAir can service and repair their fleet locally.

West Africa only has an MRO in Nigeria able to repair smaller aircraft, despite being one of the regions where air traffic growth prior to the pandemic in 2020 was on the ascendancy.

There are about 32 West-Africa based airlines servicing the region, and tens of international flights servicing various airports in the sub-region daily.

Airline operators in the sub-region have to either fly to Ethiopia, Egypt or South Africa to have faults and regular maintenance carried out on most large aircraft.

Mr. Korley said when his company’s final certification is issued – hopefully by December, it will be able to service all such aircraft in the sub-region, earn money for the country and help hasten re-attainment of Category-1 status for the Kotoka International Airport.

For Ghana to become an aviation hub, the establishment of an MRO is imperative.

“The coming on-stream of 3AMS-CELMS Limited’s MRO operations will greatly accelerate the vision of becoming the go-to aviation hub in the sub-region,” he added.