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Read our exclusive interview
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 Ghana Airways
Manager:
E.L. Quartey, Jnr.
Chairman, Interim Management Committee
Contact:
P.O. Box 1636 Accra, Ghana
Phone : (233 - 21) 77 3515
(233-21) 777199
Fax : (233 - 21)773316 - 777078
SITA : ACCDZGH
Telex : 2489 GHAIRS |
... linking you to West Africa
| Sales and |
reservations: |
| New York |
+01-800-40-GHANA (USA only)
+212-371-2800 |
| London |
+44-171-499-0201 |
| Düsseldorf |
+49-211-370337 |
| Rome |
+39-6-428 85140 |
| Johanesbourg |
+11-331-1256 |
| Harare |
+263-4-75166 |
| Accra |
+233-21-221150 /1
+233-21-777406 |
 Global Situation.
The other characteristic exhibited in the airline industry today is a tendency towards increased strategic alliances and mergers between carriers. This coupled with the earlier fact that Africa is the next emerging market; or battle ground for passengers, small airlines like Ghana Airways will need to carefully strategise and plan to ensure their future survival in the industry.
Ghana Airways may well be the first and last contact the tourist will have on any visit to Ghana. It will therefore be important to give them an encouraging and inspiring first and last impression pertaining the friendliness and warmth of the Ghanaian the ethnic culture, but still providing a professional and efficient service.
Ghana Airways corporate objectives will dovetail into and compliment the national vision 2020 of making Ghana a middle income country by 2020. It will have a role in carrying travelers, business people, tourists, and ethnic travelers to and from Ghana as well as contributing immensely to trade between Ghana and various countries.
Ghana Airways should become the reliable and dominant link between Africa particularly Ghana and the rest of the world.
INTERVIEW WITH Mr E.L. QUARTEY,
CHAIRMAN OF INTERIM MANAGEMENT COMMITTEE (IMC) OF GHANA AIRWAYS .
August, 1997
Q. What is your personal evaluation of the whole airways industry?
A. Clearly the industry is a very global one now, there is severe competition between various carriers and one of the observations is that a lot of the markets world wide are getting saturated. The only real areas of new business opportunity now lie with and in this continent, Africa.
The other characteristic exhibited in the airline industry today is a tendency towards increased strategic alliances and mergers between carriers. This coupled with the earlier fact that Africa is the next emerging market or battle ground for passengers, means that small airlines like Ghana Airways will need to carefully strategise and plan to ensure their future survival in the industry.
Q. So we can see that Ghana Airways has been demonstrating a real leadership in the African continent. It is one of the reliable companies in its sector, in the continent. What will be the main guidelines of your strategy and your strategies for the future?
Our main guideline in our strategies is that Ghana Airways' corporate objectives should dovetail into and compliment the national vision 2020 of making Ghana a middle income country by 2020 and a gateway. We should thus have a role in carrying business people, tourists, and ethnic travelers to and from Ghana as well as contributing immensely to trade between Ghana and various countries.
A. Our future strategy will be primarily threefold. The first aspect will be internal, within the continent, we have to strengthen our operations and broaden our catchment area. Secondly we have to consolidate on the long hauls that we have, we go to New York, Europe and Johannesburg (but this is within the continent) at present.
These two strategies will be complimentary, meaning that our regional operations will serve as feeders for our long hauls and those of other carriers developing Ghana into a regional hub.
The third facet of our strategy arises because we have equipment and resource limitations, it will be to look at routes where good opportunities lie and try and develop them through strategic alliances with other carriers; so that even though we may not have the equipment or resources required to service these routes, we are not encumbered when it comes to developing them.
As far as strategies go, carrying passengers is one aspect of the business; carrying cargo is another aspect for which the above strategic paradigm can apply. We have rights on certain routes, which are unexploited as far as cargo movements go.
Q. You talked about the most important flights that you have now at international level. What about those flights that you would like to consolidate or to improve and establish new lines?
A. Let me start with consolidation. Clearly traffic between USA and Ghana is very interesting and important to us. We have distinct competitive advantage because there is only one other carrier today who is actually operating that link between USA and West Africa. Operating this route offers immense savings in traveling time with minimum traveling inconvenience to the customer. We should develop that advantage to the maximum because it makes a significant contribution to the financial results we achieve.
As I mentioned earlier, there are routes which we intend to examine to determine their viability and develop thereafter. We are looking at new routes within the continent as well as other linkages outside the continent.
Q. What does it represent for Ghana Airways to have a direct flight to the US?
A. Firstly, it represents a lot of initiative. The route was dormant for some time and clearly we have turned that opportunity into a reality.
The other thing is that, we are linking a lot of African-Americans in the USA with Ghana and West Africa as a whole and that is quite an important, emotional and ancestral linkage.
Thirdly and in no way the least, I think we are providing a better service to travelers. They do not have to transit in Europe anymore to come into West Africa.
These are the key things that undertaking our service to and from the U.S. represents to us.
Q. There is a plan in future to privatise some shares in Ghana Airways. What do you think this privatization may do to Ghana Airways and what are the main motives behind this privatization?
A. If you ask me from a stake-holders point of view, stake-holder being in this case an employee', the privatization could bring badly needed capital injection into the airline which could help us achieve expansions in our fleet, this left to our own resources may be difficult to achieve in the appropriate period of time.
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Furthermore private sector participation always brings a certain sharpness and efficiency into any Organization. It also enhances knowledge exchange, there is a much greater chance of technology transfer and technical co-operation between various partners.
However, when you talk of privatising Ghana Airways, it even has to be looked at carefully because even though we are an airline, there are very many specialized aspects of the business. One specialized area for example, is cargo, another specialized area is engineering, where you could see the whole engineering department being a profit Center rendering services not just to Ghana Airways, but to other airlines, as well.
Then there is what is commonly inferred when you talk about privatization of an airline, the traditional routes, and passenger movements, between destinations. Catering is another specialized aspect of the Ghana Airways group operations. So privatization may mean the introduction of more than one specialist or partner for the different aspects of the business.
Q. As an American Magazine, we are interested in those collaborations between Ghanaian Companies and American Companies. Starting with the planes, we know that you have several (..) and is there any plans to expand?
A. We use American made aircraft, we have two McDonnell Douglas DC1O-30s that we use for the long hauls and we have just entered an agreement to get two more DC9-51s, which we are going to use for the regional routes, this is the size of our fleet at present. There are plans to modernize and expand this in due course. It depends on capital injection, as well as our financial position, and the identified routes and related business areas that need to be exploited. Certainly, with the development of new routes and increasing traffic, our present aircraft will not be able to serve our requirements in the coming years.
We also have a relationship with an American General Sales Agent AMR who are responsible for a significant proportion of our sales in the United States.
Q. What other fields of co-operation do you have with American institutions?
A. We have a prorate agreement with American Airlines so that for a passenger flying to a destination other than JFK, the Ghana Airways ticket can be used for onward transportation within the USA on American Airlines.
Q. What do you think are the main comparative advantages of Ghana Airways, when you compare it with other African Airline Companies?
A. I think one of the main advantages over other African Airlines would be the routes that we fly and the experience of our personnel.
Another advantage is the fact that Ghana Airways has Ghana as its home base. As you may be aware, Ghana has gone through tremendous economic recovery, there is an enabling business environment in Ghana at present; with foreign investors coming in, and tourism on the increase. These factors mean that there will be growing and continuing passenger and cargo traffic to and from Ghana
Q. We have seen that the tourism industry is planning to grow a lot and Ghana Airways will have to play an important role to promote the industry. What are your plans in order to meet this important role in terms of tourism?
A. At present, the airline is going through a number of corporate improvement projects, the key reason for this is to improve our service and to improve our product. This is important in promoting business and tourism because Ghana Airways may well be the first and last contact the tourist will have on any visit to Ghana.
It will therefore be important to give them an encouraging and inspiring first and last impression portraying the friendliness and warmth of the Ghanaian, the ethnic culture, but still providing a professional and efficient service.
We spoke about looking at various other routes, one of the reasons for looking into these and developing these routes is to increase the catchment area so that more people can be attracted and brought into this country
Q. Talking about improving the service and the image of Ghana Airways, what are the main points that you would like to transmit to the customer in order for him to know that Ghana Airways is different from other companies?
A. The message is that we recognize the importance of the customers and their comfort at all times and we are committed to putting in the necessary resources to ensure they are fully satisfied with our product.
In view of this , the main areas that we are trying to improve are those of punctuality and reliability because all African airlines have a bit of a stigma arising out of their past punctuality and reliability records. And no serious travelers, travel on an airline if they are not sure when they are going to leave or whether they are going to leave at all. So improvements in punctuality and reliability are essential for us.
Another area is the actual service that we provide on board. We feel that we must not lose our ethnicity and we should provide a service which is comparable with any of the top carriers.
Q. We have seen that there have been a change of management. Is there going to be a major change on the global structure of the company or you are going to keep implementing what the formal management was doing?
A. Policies may have been put in place by the old management, we are looking at them as a whole, where we feel we should continue we will, but, where we feel there should be changes, these will be implemented. The ultimate objective is to streamline the airline and its operations to ensure increased profitability, customer satisfaction, efficiency and thus competitiveness globally.
Q. What do you think would be the most satisfying achievement after two or three years for Ghana Airways?
A. I would like Ghana Airways to be seen as one of the best airlines, and I'm talking globally in terms of flying to and from Africa that is the main objective. Ghana Airways should become the reliable and dominant link between Africa particularly Ghana and the rest of the world.
But the second and equally important objective is that we would like Ghana Airways to become yet another Ghanaian success story, because there have been Ghanaian corporate success stories, and we have the confidence that Ghana Airways can be transformed and added to that list.
Q. As a final issue, what would be the message that you would like to send to our readers in order to give them confidence to come to Ghana through Ghana Airways and to see the business opportunities that are here and to invest in Ghana?
A. Firstly, we would like to tell your readers that we as Ghana Airways are committed to offering a reliable, punctual, world class service to the business and other travelers to and from Ghana.
When it comes to Ghana Airways, our objective is to make it the airline of choice. We would like to achieve that, and we hope their present perception of Ghana Airways would be different once they start patronizing us.
In terms of what Ghana has to offer them, I think there is no limit to the potential. There are business opportunities in various sectors in Ghana, the economy is very vibrant, and this is the time to come and take the opportunities- In a few years, several of them will be gone.
This link goes straight to Ghana Airways Web site.
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© World INvestment NEws, 1999.
This is the electronic edition of the special country report on Ghana published in Forbes Magazine´s
October 6th 1999 Issue.
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GHANA
