Having been transferred to Ghana in the year 2000 and having lived their for a period of over one year I thought I might write an opinion on Ghana Airways, with whom I traveled with many times.
Ghana Airways is the national airline of Ghana and their slogan is “Your Star in the Sky”
They operate a fleet of DC10 aircraft, which they use for their long haul flights, and a fleet of DC9 aircraft, which they use on the short haul flights. Although these aircraft are quite old, they are maintained and serviced very well.
The destinations covered by Ghana Airways, from and to the capital city Accra, are:
Long Haul Flights --------------------- New York, Baltimore, London, Dusseldorf, Johannesburg, Harare,
New Destinations in development ------------------------------------------ Las Palmas, Washington, Toronto, Beirut, Luanda, Lusaka, Addis Ababa and Niamey.
Passengers wishing to go to the destinations on the short haul flights have convenient connections through Accra, as these shorter flights are quite frequent.
They also have joint ventures or affiliations with a few other airlines and can therefore offer different destinations (using some sectors with other airlines but with there cheap fare base) such as Dubai, Beirut, Addis Ababa etc.
In view of the immense competition from other airlines, Ghana Airways have faired quite well.
At present there are many airlines operating too and from Ghana and these include, British Airways, KLM, Swissair, Alitalia, Ethiopian Airlines, Egypt Air, South African Airlines, Middle East Airlines and a few others.
The main incentive of flying with Ghana Airways, on say a flight from London to Accra and back, is the price. This sector on average (Peak season/Off Peak season) would cost you about PDS600 return on Economy Class. Other airlines such as British Airways would cost about 25% higher than this.
Their safety record is also very good and from what I understand they have not had one fatal crash (a death of a passenger) in their history.
On the long haul flight they operate all three classes i.e. Economy, Business and First. This is beneficial to those who prefer First Class, since a majority of airlines have discontinued First Class altogether.
Service on a off the ground, although sometimes erratic, is on the acceptable level. Considering the savings on the airfare, I for one can tolerate this slight inconvenience.
Baggage is not a problem since most flights are direct, either from or to Accra.
The only two major flaws, with Ghana Airways, is firstly the long queues at time of Check-In, at Accra, and delays on departure, especially during Peak Season Travel (Summer and Christmas).
The first flaw, being the queues, is caused mainly due to excessive haggling by a majority of the passengers, over the payment of Excess Baggage. Many Ghanaians, traveling to Europe and the States, tend to take goods for sale and since the ticket handlers do allow negotiation, in the first place, it therefore causes this situation to always arise. This is very inconvenient for those passengers on normal holiday or business travel.
The second flaw, being the delays, is actually not that bad in most cases. Delays are normally not more than a couple of hours. However there are the isolated cases where flights have been delayed for 12 hours or more. These delays are mainly for flights leaving Accra.
Irrespective of these two flaws I personally would still continue traveling with Ghana Airways. Their fares are the cheapest, the service is acceptable and the staffs are polite and cordial at most times. I have not experienced any problems with them except one short flight delay of one hour.
The airline is also improving and expanding at a brisk rate and over a short period of time, I am sure, Ghana Airways will become one of the major airlines of Africa.
If you need to know more or check schedules etc you can visit their website at: www.ghana-airways.com
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