NDC Expresses Concern About Ghana Airways

The NDC has been following closely recent developments in Ghana Airways which threaten the very existence of the national carrier.

Since the year 2001, Ghana Airways has undergone what can best be described as the experimental management with the result that the national airline now appears rudderless and without focus. The decision by the US authorities to stop the use of un-licensed Ghana Airways planes on its routes has been a severe blemish on the reputation of not just the airline but Ghana as a whole.

Last Saturday August 7, 2004 matters came to a head when scores of stranded passengers staged open protests against the failure of the airline to provide an aircraft for their scheduled flight several days of flight cancellation.

In the ensuring melee, some passengers were arrested and detained by the security agencies for voicing out their grievances. The NDC expresses its sympathy with the passengers involved and calls on the security agencies to be considerate, bearing in mind the extreme inconvenience and frustration suffered by the stranded passengers.

What has happened to Ghana Airways is an aspect of the general mismanagement the NPP has subjected the country to since it assumed office in January 2001. It further demonstrates the incompetence and lack of foresight that has characterised the administration of the NPP government.

Under the NDC administration, Ghana was being positioned as the aviation hub of the sub-region. This position is being gradually eroded and last Saturday's incident has only worsened it. The NDC is concerned that after years of painstaking efforts to make Ghana Airways an airline with respected international image in spite of difficulties, the image has been brought to this low level. The NDC is studying the situation amidst reports that the current development is being exploited by those who want to hand over the airline to investors closely association with a US-based religious organisation and will issue a more detailed statement at the appropriate time.

In the mean time, the NDC wishes to appeal to the management of Ghana Airways to make alternative arrangements for an aircraft to lift the stranded passengers to their various destinations in order to save them from further inconvenience and hardships.