British Airways has confirmed a cut down in the number of flights on its Accra-London-Accra route from 7 per week to 5 per week. This is according to sources within the travelling environment in the country.
According to communication cited by Citi Business News between British Airways and its agent partners, the move by the Airline forms part of efforts to provide certainty for its customers.
Per the airline, the reduction in its schedule to Ghana and other parts of the world will cover the summer period.
In Ghana, the cut in the flight schedule on the Accra-London-Accra route is expected to run from June to September.
Leading travel websites and international news portals have blamed the situation on staff shortages within the aviation industry. Many workers in the aviation industry were made redundant or left the sector during the COVID-19 pandemic when international travel was grounded for months at a time.
In a statement to its agents and other trade partners, the airline stated that it is giving customers the option to rebook onto alternate flights and are utilizing larger aircraft where appropriate and also enabling more customers to travel as close to their original departure time as possible.
For some flights, customers may be asked to follow up directly with their travel agent and should customers no longer wish to travel, they can obtain a full refund as per the Standard Customer Guidelines of British Airways the statement added.
The airline further urged travellers to ensure they have their most up-to-date details with British Airways to ensure they enjoy remedies put in place without any issues.
Below is the full statement
Dear Trade Partner,
Aviation has been one of the industries worst hit by the pandemic; airlines and airports are experiencing the same issues, rebuilding their operations while managing the continuing impact of Covid.
As a business, we are focused on three priorities: our customers and valued partners, supporting the biggest recruitment drive in our history and increasing our operational resilience, to help provide certainty for our customers. To support this, we have taken the difficult but necessary decision to reduce our schedule over the Summer period.
We would like to apologise for the inconvenience this may cause for our mutual customers’ travel plans.
To provide maximum flexibility we’re giving customers the option to rebook onto alternate flights and are utilising larger aircraft where appropriate; enabling more customers to travel as close to their original departure time as possible. For some flights, customers may be asked to follow up directly with their travel agent. Should customers no longer wish to travel, they can obtain a full refund as per our Standard Customer Guidelines.
We also have several agreements in place with other carriers to help re-book customers. These are currently in place with Qatar Airways, Lufthansa (including Cityline), Singapore Airlines and Cathay Pacific. Please refer to the BA Trade Support website for full policy details. Partners wishing to rebook customers onto Lufthansa will need to contact us for ticket reissue.
Please ensure we hold the most up to date customer contact details listed within the PNR or added via “Manage My Booking”, allowing us to contact customers should there be any changes to their planned itinerary.
Our trade support team is currently experiencing higher than normal call volumes and you may experience longer than normal wait times. To help us prioritise urgent cases, we kindly request for you to only call if your enquiry is related to travel within the next 72 hours.
Thank you for your continued support.
British Airways
