Uproar Over Lack of Direct Canada-To-Ghana Flights: Lufthansa Messing Up With Passengers

Majority of Ghanaians living in North America especially Canada who had the hint that a major airline in Toronto-Canada was going to fly direct to Accra ended up laughing at the wrong side of their mouths.

It was because the so called direct flight from Pearson International Airport to Kotoka International Airport in Accra never came on.

When the rumour spread out, people started to gather their belongings as they plan to spend the Christmas holidays in Ghana by going to offices of traveling agencies to purchase air tickets.

But when they called at some traveling agency offices to buy their tickets, they were told “sorry it was a rumour and not real that a major airline was going to fly to Ghana” leaving holiday makers disappointed.

Traveling from Canada to Ghana either for an annual vacation or whatever is so stressful that it needs patience for one to be able to embark on such journey.

There are no direct flights from Toronto to Accra or vice versa therefore having worked so hard or got so exhausted over hard studies for the whole year and needs to travel to Ghana to rest and rejuvenate the body for another year also becomes a very difficult decision to make.

Many are those who want to visit home and spend their annual vacation with their partners, family members, friends and love ones but put of such a wonderful idea because of the stress and frustrations one has to go through whiles traveling from Canada to Ghana.

Ghana is a beautiful country that is blessed with multi-cultural activities as well as numerous festivals celebrated annually. At least every single month there is a celebration of festival in Ghana which is worth participating.

But to be able to get to Ghana one needs to book a transit flight from Pearson to Amsterdam, Frankfurt or Atlanta before continuing on another flight to Accra.

It is through this transit flight that many passengers either get their bags and other items missing as they wait between six to eight hours before getting onboard another plane to Accra which causes a lot of frustration which never encourages one to embark on such journey the next time.

It could be observed that when the rumour went round that an airline in Toronto was going to fly direct to Ghana, other airlines like Lufthansa and KLM reduced their air fares drastically because they were going to lose the market.

Apart from the over 50,000 Ghanaian residents in Ontario Province alone who have the interest of going on vacations annually to Ghana, there are thousands of tourists who have heard about the country's rich tourists attraction sites and are willing to visit them because of their historical evidence.

But tourists are discouraged from embarking on such journey because there are no direct flights from Canada to Ghana and even not prepared to bear the frustrations as a result of waiting for long hours at transit points.

Several tour operators who earlier on showed interest in organizing trips for their clients to visit Ghana have stayed off from such idea because of the fear that they might lose big time if they venture into such business.

There is no doubt that a lot of passengers in North America especially Canada love to travel with Lufthansa to Europe or Ghana due to the excellent services provided by the pilots, food and drinks as well as excellent handling of passengers whiles onboard.

However, the undue delays at the airline transit center at Frankfurt-Germany is putting a whole lot of passengers off who are now switching to enjoy services of another airline which provides between an hour to two hours connecting flight services.

If Kevin Markette, during his official introduction as general manager for Lufthansa Airlines in Ghana observed that the “country is a market with very good growth perspectives that is very much on the world's attention” then he should first take note of this problem Ghanaian passengers face and address it as a matter of urgency.

The biggest challenge facing Ghanaian the market right now is the long hours of waiting at transit points.

This high level of frustrations in the hands of Lufthansa is really making major passengers in Canada to reconsider doing businesses with other airlines who provide stress free transit solutions.

As Kevin Markette pointed out clearly, Lufthansa remains committed to the growth of the Ghanaian market, and further stressing that his outfit would endeavour to continue with the good work of his predecessor and team, from all indications would be a very hard target to achieve if these problems of long hours in transit points are not addressed because people are losing money.

Of course, everyone will agree that Ghana has a bright future if it is able to manage and keep its industries running besides the emerging oil sector and happy to hear Lufthansa would like to be part of this bright development but he will also agree with me that the partnership won't work if the airline lose chunks of its passengers from North America as a result of undue delays at transit points.

All said and done, let Markette take note of this concern and work with his international executives to better improve its connecting flight services for passengers in Canada.

This will open more business for tour operators, business communities as well as pave way for easy traveling services for holiday makers too.