The Falcon 900-EX Presidential Jet, used by the President and key government officials for both local and international travels, is back home in Ghana.
This was after undergoing six months of repairs in Paris, France.
The Jet arrived in Ghana on Tuesday, February 14, 2023.
Sources said during the period, the entire aircraft was fully refurbished, with a retrofit and avionics systems upgrade carried out on the plane as well.
With this, aviation and military sources said the Presidential Jet will now be capable of embarking on trips to most countries in Europe (with flight times of six hours, as it used to do before the unfortunate incident of September 30, 2018, where it had to land immediately in Washington DC, soon after taking off because it developed a fault.
President Akufo-Addo is thus expected to use the Presidential Jet for his trip to Munich, Germany, where he will be participating in the Munich Security Conference, whose purpose is for participants to debate the world’s most relevant security challenges.
The forum is expected to offer an unparalleled platform for high-level debates on the key and present day foreign and security policy challenges.
Coming almost a year after Russia’s invasion of Ukraine, the Munich Security Conference will also provide an opportunity to take stock of alliance cohesion and political commitment to the rules-based international order.
The President is also expected to fly to Addis Ababa, capital of Ethiopia, on board the Presidential Jet, to attend the 36th Ordinary Session of the Assembly of the African Union.
Prior to the arrival of the Presidential Jet on Tuesday, President Akufo-Addo has had to fly on commercial aircrafts to events and ceremonies outside the country.
This is thus expected to bring a huge sigh of relief to President Akufo-Addo and his government, who have had to sometimes endure the needless attacks of having to fly commercial with its attendant cost and security risk.