Ghana's first aircraft restaurant attracts focus

An old aircraft of the erstwhile Ghana Airways company has been transformed into a restaurant to serve travelers and visitors around the Kotoka International Airport enclave in Accra.

The DC-10 aircraft was one-time pride of Africa but has been turned into a sleek 118-seater restaurant, serving both local and international cuisine to hungry travelers at airport.

The La Tante DC-10 Restaurant, a private-public venture between the Ghana Airport Company and Vindira Company Ltd, was opened for business on Nov. 11.

In its heyday, the DC-10 made regular flights to the UK and back. But the company began to slump and reports of debts became ever more alarming.

The plane was impounded at Heathrow Airport in 2002 after a British company called in liquidators over unpaid debts of more than 4 million pounds, leaving hundreds of Ghanaians stranded after the airline suspended services to the UK and Italy, its other European destination.

But the old aircraft has been given a face-lift and has found a new use as an eatery center.

Mathias Dorfe, a director of Vindira Company Ltd, operators of the La Tante royal restaurant, said the idea to turn the aircraft into a restaurant was the brain of the Ghana Airport Company, owners of the old plane.

"They thought that the DC-10 had been de-commissioned and had been lying idle and they were thinking how they could create value out of it. And they came up with the idea that we can turn this into a restaurant. But since the Ghana Airport company itself is not in the business of running restaurants, they decided to invite private persons in the project. So they opened up a bid and we put in a bid and fortunately for us our bid won," he told Xinhua in an interview on Wednesday.

The plane restaurant is a new model, the first in Ghana and probably in Africa at large.