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09.08.2004 Business & Finance

Ghana Airways Losing Millions By The Day

09.08.2004 LISTEN
By JOY ONLINE

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.

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