Business News of Thursday, 13 April 2006

Source: Times

Ghana International Airlines still flying

The management crisis that hit the Ghana international Airlines (GIA) seems not to have affected the airline's flight operations.

Investigations by the Times reveal that, since last Friday when the crisis became intense, all the airline's flights took off as scheduled without any hitch.

Although there is an uncertainty as to who the executives of the airline are, that has not affected operations.

"We have not cancelled any flight. All our flights are on as scheduled," Sean Mendis, Special Assistant to the purportedly sacked Chief Executive Officer of GIA, told the Times on phone yesterday.

Official sources at the Ghana Civil Aviation Authority confirmed this, indicating that the consistency in the airline's flight schedules had not been disturbed.

Last Friday, barely 17 months into the operations of the new national airline, its four top executives, comprising the Chief Executive Officer (CEO), Mr. Brain Presbury, the Vice- President (Operations) Mr. Sammy Crabbe, the Special Assistant to the CEO, Mr. Sean Mendis, and the Head of Corporate Affairs, Mr. K. K. Apeadu, were summarily dismissed.

Insider sources alleged that the four officials were sacked by the Chief of Staff and Minister of Presidential Affairs, Mr Kwadwo Mpiani, after a heated argument between him and the management of GIA last Thursday. Source: