GIA in Trouble?

GHANA International Airline has debunked rumours that it has gone into liquidation following the grounding of its Accra - London flight at the Gatwick Airport in London on Saturday morning.

Passengers on board the flight which landed at the Gatwick Airport on Saturday morning around 6:00am, were calmly escorted from the tarmac to the terminals by UK security agencies while the aircraft was guarded by a large number of other security personnel made up of British Transport Police and British Airport Authority security apparatus.

According to reports, the security agents had “ambushed” the aircraft on the tarmac on its arrival at the airport.

Investigations revealed that the airline had breached the financial contract with the company that had leased an aircraft for its operations.

The company, whose name has been withheld, claimed the airline owed it millions of dollars which had not been dealt with for months now.

A passenger on the flight who only gave his name as Ron said upon seeing the large number of security officials on the tarmac, most of the passengers appeared very shocked.

The security officials swiftly surrounded the aircraft and ordered crew members and passengers off it.

He said their fears were somehow allayed when they were told to be calm because “there was nothing against them.”

They were then escorted to the terminals where they went through normal immigration procedures.

At the departure check-in points, another large group of passengers faced high disappointment with cancellation of their flight from London, Gatwick to Accra.

The GIA agent at the Gatwick Skybridge Air Operations also faced a huge task in explaining the situation to the disappointed passengers.

Linda Appiah, who was at the airport to see her father off, lamented on how there was no GIA official to explain or offer assistance or support to the passengers.

She said though passengers expressed some degree of disappointment, they exhibited a high sense of calmness.

Some of the passengers who had no money on them had to depend solely on friends and relations for other means of travelling to Accra.

A number of the passengers resorted to other airlines like the British Airways (BA) and according to reports, within two hours, the BA received nearly 30 passengers on the London -Accra GIA flight which never flew to Accra

A GIA official later told this reporter that the situation was under control. “It was only a financial issue which had gone on for some time now but we are looking at how best to settle the issue.”

“There is nothing like liquidation, neither is the airline being grounded forever. It is just a problem that we are still looking to address,” he stressed.

He gave the assurance that the aircraft will be back in the skies in the next 24 hours and then “we will work hard on how to clear the backlog.”

From Nana Sifa Twum, London