This schedule will initially be a codeshare arrangement with Ethiopia Airlines. This will give the new airline room to refine its own operations. Codeshare is a practice in the airline industry where a flight operated by one airline is jointly marketed by a partner.

All major airlines in the world engage in codeshare and is a key feature of the major world alliances. It is not a complicated arrangement. The flight AB 543 of airline AB can also be sold by airline CD as CD 543.

This allows airlines to offer for sale flights to markets where they might not otherwise be able to operate their own planes, or to offer additional choices to customers in markets where they already fly.

For example, a major airline like Singapore Airlines (SQ) does not fly to Toronto in Canada. However, it has a codeshare flight with Air Canada (AC) between Frankfurt and Toronto where Flight AC 873 is also sold as flight SQ 1073.

This allows Singapore Airlines to offer tickets for sale to passengers flying to Toronto where they would other otherwise not be able to.

The airline industry is a very volatile and dynamic one where operators are on the move constantly to remain in the skies. In the past few years the world has witnessed the demise of giants like SWISSAIR and Sabena. On the African continent, Nigeria Airways and Air Afrique have had to go.

Low fare and budget airlines are another aspect of the industry with their very special perks and quirks, but that's another subject altogether.

Since its incorporation, GIAL has already appreciated in value, according to industry insiders. The company's valuation has increased to over seven fold because of the value of the cooperation between GIA-USA,LLC and the Government of Ghana. Other intangibles have added to the value of the company.

The company is now open for more resources and investors are expected to join at a later date. For this reason, the structure and composition of the company would keep changing. Already, there is talk of floating 5-10% of the stock on the Ghana Stock Exchange to allow for Ghanaian public participation.

As a legally constituted business entity operating under Ghana's Companies Code, GIAL now has to pull all the stops and deliver on its objects this year. Some Ghanaians have seen the demise of Ghana Airways as a major loss in national pride and unless they see another airline take its place flying the flag of Ghana, they will remain crestfallen.

A lot of Ghanaians also resent the fact that they have to use "foreign" airlines to move in and out of their country. These may be sentimental, but all the same, remain legitimate as people show preferences for products because of different reasons and predilections.

The three major issues GIAL has to handle at the moment are, the bad press it's been getting from sections of the Ghanaian media, the viciousness of aspects of the competition and the suffocating bogey of Ghana Airways which still exists under the management of a Task Force set up by the government last year to wind down its affairs.

Ghana Airways has not been liquidated yet. Its other subsidiaries like Airways Catering Limited (ACL) are still operating and its aviation wing and administration are maintaining skeleton staff awaiting government's final decision.

Some Ghana Airways staff would be re-engaged by GIAL, but they would have to apply first. The rest would have to receive their entitlements as stipulated in their collective agreements and re-start their lives as best as they can, because the reality is that the Ghana Airways Ghanaians used to know is dead.

It's gone the way of PAN AM, British Caledonia, Air Afrique, SWISSAIR, Nigeria Airways and many more…