Ladies and Gentlemen of the Media, fellow Ghanaians

Our Ghanaian Aviation is facing serious crisis and government must move quickly to address the critical issues which have arisen in recent months culminating in a disastrous month for Ghana International Airlines over the festive season.

A little background firstly on the origins of the current crisis - the year was 1958 and Ghana proudly launched a national air carrier – Ghana Airways. It chalked many successes in the years that followed its launch and was a source of pride for the nation, notwithstanding its many lapses and inefficiencies in later years. It had an assured market and a ready base of customers, often willing to forgive in the name of mother Ghana.

Ghana Airways trained pilots were acknowledged as very very good in their field and are today serving other Airlines with distinction.

The Airline arrived at a point in its history where like most companies it needed an overhaul, restructuring, re-branding and some incentivisation to motivate its complacent staff.

In a moment of madness and with quite absurd logic the ruling NPP government decided to scrap the Airline and to replace it with a new carrier – Ghana International Airlines (GIA). Initially it seemed as if the new company would be a wholly private affair in line with the NPP’s free market dogma. The nation has since learned that the Government of Ghana is the majority owner and employed the services of inexperienced and untested partners from the USA. In a subsequent quarrel between the partners the US representatives were unceremoniously ejected from GIA offices and sent packing back to America without satisfactory explanation.

The situation at GIA has gotten steadily worse culminating in the almighty fiasco experienced by GIA customers this Christmas.

The United Kingdom and Ireland Branch of the Convention People’s Party (CPP) received over the festive season numerous e mails of complaint seeking a solution to what has become to many an unbearable situation with seemingly no outlet for redress.

The fiasco began with 7 to 8 hour delays to Christmas flights from London to Accra. This turned into flight “no shows” and 2, 3 and 4 day delays with Ghanaians and other nationals stranded at Gatwick Airport, UK, for days. Fights ensued on many occasions where the British Police had to be called to restore order and to guarantee the safety of Check-in and other Airport staff .Worse was to follow – many passengers arriving at the Airport in Accra did not receive their luggage for many days and there are many tails of missed weddings and funerals.

Many passengers were in Accra for 3 to 4 days without their luggage and thus without changed clothing. Return journeys back to London were for many passengers a continuation of the nightmare – the GIA flight of 7th January 2007, scheduled to depart at 23.45 pm GMT for example was abruptly cancelled whilst passengers were queuing to check –in and a chartered flight carrying stranded passengers did not depart KIA until 17.30 PM GMT on the 8th January 2007.

Many nationals – Swedish, Asians, British and Nigerians catching transit flights from London to Canada, the USA, and Sweden and beyond all missed their connecting flights. Many vowed never to travel through Ghana again and certainly never again with GIA.

Much embarrassment and disgrace has been caused to the nation during this festive season and in that time no GIA official, government official or the Minister responsible for Aviation made any comments publicly or offered any apology to the many thousands of people inconvenienced during the period. The question that the CPP and many other Ghanaians are asking is thus “Did We Come or Did We Go”.

After forcing thousands of Ghana Airways and ancillary company staff to loose their jobs, brutalizing many to leave their homes, disposing of some of the Ghana Airways flats in a questionable manner to cronies, spending many more trillions of Ghanaian tax payer Cedis to set up a new airline, we seem to be back to square one, with no meaningful progress on the Ghanaian carrier front. The NPP has much to answer for this saga and the minimum Ghanaians and other nationals who have been put through hell over the Christmas period are asking is that the Minister responsible must resign or be sacked for the un-precendented debacle.

Nii Armah Akomfrah

Chairman for Convention People’s Party (CPP UK & Ireland) cppuk@hotmail.com