Ghana Airways London chalks improvement

London (UK) – 13 May 2003 - The national carrier, Ghana Airways, has received glowing commendation from the British Airports Authority (BAA), operators of London Heathrow airport for improvements in slot performance.

In a letter dated 14 April 2003 and addressed to the London Manager of Ghanair, Roger Allotey, the BAA said “the committee members are pleased to report that the slot performance of your operations has shown a number of improvements. We therefore congratulate you on your actions and appreciate your commitment to the measures the airport is taking to ensure the runway capacity is maximised”.

As a result of the improvements Ghana Airways has now been restored to full pier-service for all flights in and out of London Heathrow, which means passengers now board and alight the aircraft straight through the terminal without having to board coaches to be ferried to and from the aircraft.

Ghanair had the pier-service removed a few years ago following lateness in both landing and take-offs but measures instituted by the London office in particular, and the Accra office in general, in the recent months has produced dividends and now financial savings for the airline.

Speaking to GRi from his central London office, Roger Allotey said “ I believe that however insignificant it may appear, it is still a recognition from the airport authorities because some airlines are still on the coach/hard stands.

“I believe hard work pays off. We have tried hard enough, from using scales, radio announcements on early check-in, informative flyers as well as physical presence to help passengers sort out their weight problems. We will be chalking more successes and we entreat patrons to try the airline one more time. Things are definitely on course.”

Allotey further said that the letter from BAA is a visible sign of confidence. He went on to enumerate some of the things they are doing to win back custom and improve on efficiency, including better response time to phone calls to their London West End office, which sometimes give the impression that nobody is picking the calls. He said “we failed to do something definite about it because we had plans of moving out of the present office premises. Now that it is apparent that we would have to be here for at least six more months, we plan to rectify this well before the end of May and the callers need to bear with us.”

Other projects in the pipeline aimed at improving efficiency and reliability relate to the processing of refunds, compensation claims and better customer care. Plans are also in place to arrange for coach transport for passengers outside the London area.