ROUTES AFRICA: Accra Kotoka International Triumphs in Airport Marketing Awards

Posted 04/07/2011

Kotoka International Airport in the Ghanaian capital Accra was last night announced as the winner of the fourth heat of this year’s Routes Airport Marketing Awards during the Gala Dinner at this year’s Routes Africa forum at the Radisson Blu Hotel in Bamako, Mali. Over 150 aviation professionals were gathered, taking part in the 6th Routes Africa conference.

The airport was commended for its submission and how it has approached enhancing the profile of the facility in domestic, regional and international markets. Speaking to The HUB Daily after accepting the award Doreen Owusu-Fianko, Managing Director of airport operator Ghana Airports Company Limited, said: “We feel so proud to win this prestigious award. We are a small but functional airport and it is our vision to be a hub and gateway for the West Africa sub-region. We have always prided ourselves on being customer friendly and we are happy to have welcomed three different US Presidents to the airport.”

The Routes Airport Marketing Awards have become synonymous with recognising and rewarding the highest standards of marketing activities undertaken by airports. They work on the core principal that the people who are best placed to judge an airport’s marketing activities are its primary users: the airlines themselves.

After being nominated by airlines, the airports are then asked to submit details about their route development activity and results. A panel of judges considers these submissions and scores them based upon how it matches the entry brief, route development content, evidence of relationship with airlines, innovative ways of marketing to airlines, results, effectiveness and creative application.

Kotoka International Airport (IATA: ACC, ICAO: DGAA) is the largest airport in Ghana and serves as a mini-hub for the West African region. It is one of four commercial airports controlled by Ghana Airports Company Limited, alongside regional facilities at Kumasi, Sunyani and Tamale, although there are also a number of smaller airstrips in the country that it holds responsibility for. The airport operator was registered as a separate business from the local Civil Aviation Authority in January 2006 and started trading on January 1, 2007.

Last year Kotoka International handled 1.64 million passengers and that figure is expected to grow as a modernisation of the airport continues. It is currently served by over 30 passenger and cargo airlines with direct links domestically, regionally and into intercontinental markets including Europe and North America.

“We want to develop as a hub and our geographical location means we are positioned to be able to offer links to every continent in the world. At the moment we are only missing network links in South America and the Caribbean and we are working hard to establish such a link within the next two years. In the meantime we are happy with developing into new markets and hope to add up to four new airlines every year. TAP Portugal has recently inaugurated flights to Lisbon and we are confident that we will soon have regular links to Barcelona with Spanair and Doha with Qatar Airways,” added Doreen Owusu-Fianko.

Alongside the winning airport the final shortlist included Entebbe International Airport in Uganda; Jomo Kenyatta International Airport in Nairobi, Kenya and Sikuphe International Airport in Swaziland. Kotoka International Airport will now go forward with the other winners from the regional Routes events to compete for the overall Airport Marketing Award title, which will be announced at the World Routes event in Berlin, Germany in October. The other regional winners comprise Dallas Fort Worth International from the Americas region, Abu Dhabi Airports Company from Asia and the Middle East and Budapest Airport from Europe.

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