GIA sinking into oblivion?

The early indications on the government takeover of GIA appear to agree with the view of most analysts initially that the takeover of the national airline was ill conceived and not well thought through.

The Azu-Mate led management has struggled to reach the passenger levels its predecessors achieved, and as at 2nd May, the prognosis for the airline looked bleak.

The main yard stick in calculating revenue in the airline industry has brought up shocking revelations about the national carrier. The average daily load for the leased Boeing 757 GIA operates on its Accra-London route has revealed startling results.

For the week commencing 23 April, GIA were averaging 45 passengers on its flights daily out of Gatwick, however they fared slightly better departing from Kotoka Airport, where the daily passenger load increased to 60.

Taking out the traditional Easter period, the airlines passenger load has steadily declined over the past 3 weeks Bearing in mind, that the leased aircraft from Ryan International has a total seating capacity of 210 passengers, then it appears that the airline is being led into a slow deathly dance by it new management.

Forward passenger bookings available to this writer suggest that this downward spiral gets even more serious, as, at the close of business on Tuesday 2nd May, advanced bookings to the end of May averaged only 15 passengers per flight out of Gatwick and a miserly 25 out of Kotoka Airport.

Carry this analysis forward to June, and the bookings drop to 10 per flight out of Gatwick, and 15 from Kotoka. If this trend continues, the airline will be flying with just 3 passengers plus crew by the end of June.

So what has led to this serious decline of the national airline in just one month into a new management?

My investigations seem to point the finger at an inept management as the main reason for the decline. The day to day administration of the airline was handed over to BOD Chairman Azu Mate by former Aviation Minister Kwadwo Mpianin, but the ageing Azu, has practically ceded the airline into the hands of Albert Vitale.

My investigations appear to point to the fact that in his haste to wrestle control of GIA from Sam Crabbe, due to NPP internal politics, Mr Mpianin did not fully think through the effects of his Mafia style takeover over of the Ghana International Airlines. So the airline has been saddled with the retired Azu Mate in charge, who is working towards his retirement money, who in turn is taking advice from others.

For now the future looks bleak for GIA.