A new airline in the west African country of Ghana is gearing up for operations, led by a U.S. consortium with Utah connections.
The Republic of Ghana and consortium GIA-USA LLC said Friday that definitive agreements have been signed to create Ghana International Airlines Ltd.
GIA-USA is owned by several companies, including World Transport Group Inc., a St. George-based aviation consulting company whose president is SkyWest Airlines Inc. founder J. Ralph Atkin, and Sentry Investments LLC, a Salt Lake-based investment company.
The new airline will replace a winding-down national air carrier for Ghana.
A management team will work to form the airline with a network of flights to and from Europe, North America and Africa using Kotoka International Airport in Accra as a hub.
Flight operations are scheduled to begin in the second quarter of 2005, with an initial fleet of eight to 10 aircraft.