Passengers travelling from Accra to London using British Airways (BA) will land at the Heathrow Airport despite an earlier decision to re-route the service to Gatwick Airport from October, this year.

This is after months of protest, led by the government through the Ghana Civil Aviation Authority (GCAA), to force the airline operator to rescind a decision to redirect the Accra-London route from Heathrow to Gatwick.

The airline has thus abandoned the move and will continue the Accra-London service to Heathrow from IATA Winter 2021 Season, which starts on the last Sunday of October and ends on the last Saturday of March.

Management of the airline explained that the new move was informed by favourable slot conditions and changes to network plans due to the continued travel restrictions resulting from the coronavirus (COVID-19) pandemic.

As a result, the airline said it would from today effect the service continuation changes to its commercial system.

Read also: Govt rejects relocation of British Airways Ghana services to Gatwick Airport

Positive news

The Director General (DG) of the GCAA, Mr Charles Kraikue, confirmed the development to the Daily Graphic in Accra yesterday and observed that the service continuation was positive news to the travelling public.

That, he said, was because re-routing to the Gatwick Airport would have been an inconvenience for customers using the Accra-London route to connect to other countries.

“The decision would inconvenience passengers using the Accra route because with that when a traveller is connecting to the United States of America (USA) through London, the person will have to land at Gatwick before finding another means to get to Heathrow to continue the journey,” he said.

How it started

Mr Kraikue stated that the decision came to the notice of the authority as a surprise, having been written to a few months earlier by the management of the United Kingdom national carrier.

“We are the regulators of the airspace in Ghana, and so when the airline wrote to us on its decision to change the service to Gatwick Airport, we wrote back to them expressing our displeasure and disagreement with the decision.

“And so we began negotiating with them, and about a month ago, we had our final meeting and BA agreed to rescind the decision to keep the Accra-London route at Heathrow,” he said.

Asked what informed the earlier decision to re-route the Accra service to Gatwick, Mr Kraikue said when the GCAA enquired, BA said it was a commercial decision influenced by COVID-19.

“When we started discussions, we realised it was only Ghana in Africa that the decision affected, and that was why we mounted a strong protest for it to be reversed,” he added.

A letter dated June 10, 2021, signed by the Senior Vice President in-charge of Middle East and Africa, Mr Sohail Ali, and addressed to Mr Kraikue confirmed the continuation of service at Heathrow.

The letter, sighted by the Daily Graphic stated, among other things, that “we are pleased to announce that British Airways services between London and Accra will continue to operate from London Heathrow from the IATA Winter 2021 Season.

“This has been possible due to favourable slot conditions and changes to network plans due to the continued travel restrictions resulting from the pandemic.

“British Airways, recognised as an independent commercial, private limited liability company in Ghana, also commits to continuation of regular consultations with the GCAA”.