Imagine the excitement of going back home, and while you are at your house, you sit awaiting for everyone to be ready to depart to the airport, and while you are waiting you start to think of home, and in a few hours you will be there, you start to think, "this time tomorrow, I will be home, with my family and happy."

Or imagine arranging your whole trip to England around a business meeting, knowing that it is going to be of the utmost important for you to be back in Ghana on a certain day or else important decisions and processes would be missed.

Or even imagine being a student in Ghana and you arrange your trip to England so that you can spend as much time as your family and be able to go back to Ghana for whatever type of enrolment, exams, revisions, or other deadlines that is needed to meet.

With all these examples in mind, wouldn’t it be nice to have a reliable airline able to take care of all these needs.

Well imagine going to the airport almost in touching distance of Ghana and then being told, due to a technical problem, or due to delays, or due to the plane not leaving Ghana you are going to have to wait until the next day. Thus the anger and disappointment set in. depending on how fortunate you are your luck will undoubtedly be different, some are told in the morning to come back in the evening, others are told the next day. That is if you are lucky. There was a case where a passenger was told to come back in the evening, he came back, they were then told to come back the next day, he came back the next day, waited at the final waiting room for a good three hours (all the time being told that loading would be soon) and then they were told the plane is not leaving for another day.

I know at the beginning I said imagine, well the problem for too many Ghanaian’s is that there is no need for any imagination to take place, for 90% of the people reading probably think I am talking about them.

For a long time now, Ghana airways have been beset with a number of problems after problems concerning their airline service, as well as their hospitality. On a recent trip to Ghana and of course encountering a number of problems, I began to wonder what other airlines would say about this service. Is this the joke of the air lines? For it surely isn’t the envy, for if someone says they went to Ghana via Ghana airways and didn’t encounter problems then people are more surprised by that. However on the way back I was one of the first people to get off the plane, there was a lady in front of me, and she was asked by the passport inspector whether she was from Ghana airways she said yes (the plane was half an hour late which is very good) and the inspector said smugly "oh we were expecting you back later." I saw the reputation preceded them.

I continually wonder why so many problems, and why there is no change in standard. Ghana airways should and could be an airline which Ghanaians could look at and proudly say to others "we have an airline, and look how good and efficient it is." Instead if we are asked if we have an airline we would say under our breath yes, and try to change the subject before we have to justify its standard. Do not get me wrong, we are proud to say that we have an airline, but the symbol is nothing without substance.

I was told that a European was interested in taking over Ghana airways. I think it would be an insult which would basically be saying Ghanaians haven’t got the ability to look after their own products and even when we are in control and have the opportunity to control something that belongs to us, we still are not able to do so efficiently. However knowing the continual problems, I had to even think twice, it has to be said that the airline has been beset by problems and the goal for any company is to provide a decent service for its customers, and if it isn’t then it must be turned over to people who can.

The whole issue is a change needs to come, not only because the customers are disgruntled but Ghana airways themselves are loosing out in getting profit from customers who have strayed and do not trust the airlines. For the people who tell you to not go to Ghana via Ghana airways are Ghanaians themselves, not because their jealous, or being spiteful, but through experience or knowledge of the reputation. If you tell someone that you are going to Ghana, the first question they may ask is how long, then the second question is by what air lines, when you reply Ghana airways, what will follow next is a joke about the inefficiency of Ghana airway or a plea for you not to take Ghana airways. I was asked why am I going by Ghana airways, I will never get there my friend said seriously, she said that it is better to go by British airways, and the joke is she has never been to Ghana her self, yet she was adamant that I do not take the air line.

I tried to explain to her how I would rather give my money to a Ghanaian or a black company rather than any other airline. However she wasn’t convinced by any of my explanations, and as sad as it is, one of the reasons why Ghanaians still take the airlines is because of patriotism, and the will, plus the desire to have Ghana airways functioning properly. Though the patriotism of most people are now wearing down. And as powerful as that reason is, it doesn’t reign over the desire to get to Ghana. And we cannot forget that infamous enticing forty kilos. I believe if the forty kilos were removed then the airline would be in bigger trouble, for more people probably go for the forty kilos rather than the patriotism, unfortunately.

However the support from us is there. Consequently your customers, especially the Ghanaian should be treated with the utmost respect. We shouldnt be kept waiting from hours to days while you decide to let other people use OUR airline. Or have you only runing on time, when you are trying to impress foreign passengers over your own brothers and sisters, this is treachery, and conduct that needs to be changed.

I do hope those at Ghana airways read this article, for it is not condemnation, rather a report, for what I say is out of love, not out of hate, because your failure is our failure, and what I have said is the truth, and it is a report that has been long overdue, for only by criticism, can we understand our faults and try to improve to the satisfaction of the masses. For I would love to boast to all other people, I would love to say to them, look at our air line, and how good it is. But right now, all I can say is look at our aeroplanes, and not look at them in the air.

This is also a plea, and a warning, the millennium is coming, and the amount of Ghanaians I have spoken to who have said that they are going home for the millennium is a great number, and if Ghana airways wants to take care of their Ghanaians, then more than one or two aeroplanes is going to be needed if the people I have spoken to is a cross section of the number of people who will be going home, and not only from England, but America, France, and the rest of Europe, so please do not let it be one nations benefiting at the loss of another.

By Andrew Togobo