T8191

Excuse me asking, binman, but as you have some knowledge of Ghana ...

WHAT is Mr. President actually complaining about?

• Using T3 instead of T5? Oh, Lordy, what awful Imperialists we still are.
• BA's fleet having some older aircraft? (seeCIHY's post #13 ... "My last two flights to Accra have been on the refurbished Super J B744.")

I have no idea what inspired his comments, but they do seem very trivial. For home consumption, I presume, as I can't see BA taking the slightest interest in them.

djjaguar64

I mean come on, BA serves crappy sandwiches to its First Class passengers from SYD, why would they care about the plane used for Ghana! Duh!

navylad

I don't really buy the exploiting argument I'm afraid. BA is a business, offering a service. The individual has the right to say what he likes of his own opinion, when speaking as an individual but when speaking such as he did as a statesmen, he demonstrates a lack of diplomacy; we don't know whether he had made his feelings felt privately and felt his views were being ignored, but I'm not sure what he hopes to gain from his speech or the motivation behind it, perhaps it was just to boost his popularity, but it risks alienating a company that doesn't have to operate to his country and could redeploy assets to other routes that may be more profitable; particularly when the content boils down to people getting a bus to change terminals in an international hub airport.

Now had his complaint had a little more substance, safety implications or employee manipulation perhaps, I might have taken the comments more seriously.

rapidex

Following extensive customer feedback from customers telling us their dislike of LHR T3,BA has embarked on a number of enhancements including moving the Accra flights to LGW

everGLAdes

I'm with the Ghanian Dictator President on this one. He must have also been crammed in a transfer bus at 6am. Maybe he's vying for an invite to Prem .

I loathe terminal 3 and the transfer process.

navylad

Well he could always fly TK or MS and avoid LHR.

Grog

Ach, how one can look at the speck of sawdust in one brother's eye and pay no attention to the plank in one's own.

warakorn

Alex Cruz couldn't care less.

shefgab

How is BA exploiting them? I haven't investigated much, but it seems like BA charges a premium for direct LHR services (like all carriers do on direct flights), and all European airlines have similar high* fares. But I've done some travelling around Africa and the local airlines certainly aren't cheap, so it's hardly an imperialist thing. Didn't Virgin Nigeria end up being turned into some government crony airline before being renamed then finally folding though mismanagement?

*Fare in terms of cost per mile compared to busier London-USA or London-Far East routes

What about Ghana International Airlines that was flying into LGW in the early 2000s? Clearly that one lost too much money to try again with Govt funds (although there is also Goldstar Air).

eiflyer

Yes but if you are going to do why not do it properly....................old clapped out jumbos don't cut it on an expensive route.......

shefgab

Erm, they send clapped out old jumbos on all* routes!

* well, a lot of them anyway. Certainly they're not restricted to Ghana

T8191

The Caribbean 777 runs ex-LGW are a bit poor as well. I'm surprised their Presidents/Prime Ministers haven't ALL complained about the aircraft, and having to use LGW

Pathetic, but ... whatever. BA won't care one iota.

philthegreek

Whilst not wanting to be seen to be gainsaying the exalted CIHY, my last two flights to and from Accra have been in a 747 with the WTP section between First and Club World, which I believe are the older versions. My flights were Sat 13 May, ex LHR and Sun 21 May, ex ACC.

CC on board explained that the older 747's took a lot more economy passengers and that on both the flights the WT section was full, whilst there was room in Club and First. If the market is only interested in WT seats then BA cannot be blamed for putting planes on the route with the max of WT seats that they can provide.

What I cannot understand is why, if the route is so popular for WT, they don't have two flights on certain days.

Can I help you

I'm aware that it's mostly operated by the mid J B744 but was just stating that my last two flights had been on the super J.

Deltus

Is it profitable to fly a plane full of WT pax when there's no (or little) demand for the premium cabins? It's a bit far to stick a 767 on the route...