GhanaWeb, Ghana
Aug 9 2004
Ghana Airways Losing Millions By The Day
It’s been a week of nightmare for the national carrier, Ghana
Airways, as the queue of stranded passengers gets longer with each
flight postponed.
And as the queue grows longer so do the airline’s bills.
Ghana Airways is losing several millions of cedis in cash
compensation for stranded passengers both in Ghana and the US.
At the last count the airline has had to cater for over eight hundred
stranded passengers in hotel and transportation bills.
No official figures are readily available but the advertising manager
of the airline, Mawuko Afadzinu admitted in an interview with Joy
Business Report that the airline’s bills keep increasing as more
passengers continue to be disappointed.
And matters came to a head on Sunday when the airline failed yet
again to fly its passengers to London and Düsseldorf due to some
technical problems.
But underlying the problems of the airline is its lack of
credibility.
Efforts to lease a plane to fly came crashing down as the agent for
the Armenian registered aircraft, Chapman Freemon, demanded a cash
payment of 150 thousand dollars upfront.
This did not please the chief executive of Ghana Airways, Akua
Sarpong.
`It is not possible to do such a thing. We don’t know why he is doing
that because in the past our cheques have not bounced. I cannot carry
thousands of dollars in a bag to him when I have not even seen the
aircraft, it is not possible’, she said.
The airline has been making efforts to replace its two DC-10 aircraft
which have been the bane of some of the airline’s problems.