Passengers Protest Airways' Shabby Treatment ...

....Demand Compensation, Apology

Some home coming summit participants who flew home by the national airline on July 12 were subjected to a terrible ordeal without any explanations or apologies from the airline's management.

Ghana Airways delayed the take-off of its flight 731 from London's Heathrow Airport by five hours.

Two of the five hours were spent in the plane with the engines switched off and passengers who attempted to seek explanations were treated with contempt, David Ayine, a Management Consultant who was also aboard the flight told Public Agenda.

Passengers aboard the 731 flight are demanding an explanation, an unqualified public apology and compensation from Ghana Airways for what they describe as "ridiculous" and "unacceptable" behaviour.

The group of over 200 who appended their signatures to a petition to the management of the airline has also threatened to saddle the debt ridden national carrier with legal action if the airline fails to meet their demands in time.

Ayine, spokesman for the group said efforts to collect signatures of passengers in the Business Class were hampered as he was refused access amid insults.

Ayine is also chairman of the United Kingdom chapter of the Ghana Human Rights Committee. Kwame Appiah, a student, who was also on the flight, corroborated Ayine's story in a separate interview. Appiah recounted a similar ordeal his mother and passengers on a Ghana Airways flight from the United States on July 16 allegedly went through. He said passengers were delayed for four hours.

According to the passengers it all started when they checked in at 11 am (London time). They said, neither the airline's officials nor Heathrow Airport's announcement screens indicated that their flight back home would be delayed.

After mid-day, they were each given a six pound coupon for lunch and were told the flight was going to be delayed. No further explanations or apology was offered.

"By the time most of the passengers had checked in there was still no announcement by the airline about the delay and how long it will take," the passengers said in their petition.

The passengers were finally asked to get on board the aircraft at about 5 p.m. (UK time) yet the plane took off after two hours, again without an apology

"From about 5 p.m. UK time, we had to stay in the aircraft in very appalling and unacceptable conditions to about 7.05 when we finally took off," the petition said.

"When all passengers were on board no apology was rendered..." they added.

The airline's Performance and Monitoring Manager, J.A.T. Danso-Quayson, who received the written petition on Wednesday, July 25 refused to comment although he had earlier, on Tuesday, pledged to (Public Agenda) comment on it.

Danso-Quayson referred Public Agenda to the Public Affairs section, which inturn re-directed us to Danso-Quayson, who is responsible for the Customer Care Department. Again, he refused to comment.

Regular and even one-time clients of the national airline have had cause to complain about the services of the airline. They complained of shabby in flight service, overbooking and undue delays without apology.

Ghana Airways has had to pay penalty to aviation authorities of some of the countries whose airspaces it uses due to its inability to fly at times allotted to it.

Last year, a New York-bound flight was forced to make a detour to Accra after the Senegalese aviation officials refused it entry into that country's airspace. The reason? Ghanair had consistently failed to honour debts owed to the Senegalese authorities.

As part of the expensive roundabout, the plane had to throw away nearly all its aviation fuel to land at the Kotoka airport to pick up the cheque covering the airlines' indebtedness to the Senegalese authorities. Airlines require a specific weight to touch down.

The airline's indebtedness to other companies including banks are said to be so crippling that Ghana Airways is selling some of its choicest assets here and abroad to avoid bankruptcy.