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. - Ghana Review International