Ghana Airways

Ghana Airways Limited was the flag carrier of Ghana from 1958 to 2005, with its main base of operation and hub at Accra International Airport in Accra. The airline ceased operations in June 2005, although plans were discussed to revive it in 2020 in partnership with Egyptair.

Ghana Airways was founded on 4 July 1958 by the government of Ghana with a start-up capital of £400,000, with the government holding a 60 percent stake and BOAC holding the remainder. When the company was founded, a seven-year agreement between the airline and BOAC was signed, which saw BOAC personnel being seconded to Accra, and Ghanaian personnel being trained in order for them to take over management and operation of the airline. Prior to the foundation of the company, BOAC and West African Airways Corporation were responsible for international services from Ghana, operating pool services from West Africa to London. For their initial operations, Ghana Airways joined the pool services, when BOAC began operating the Accra–London route on 16 July 1958 with a Boeing 377 Stratocruiser, with the aircraft being operated with the Ghanaian flag and in a livery minimally adapted from that of the UK carrier. The airline's relationship with West African Airways ceased on 30 September, and on 1 October they began operating the domestic and regional flights formerly offered by WAAC. The airline's first aircraft, and hence the first aircraft to be registered in Ghana since the nation became independent, was a de Havilland Heron delivered on 30 December. At the end of the airline's first year of operation they had made a net profit of US$28,000.

A second Heron was delivered to the airline in 1959, and on 9 March, the first Douglas DC-3 entered service. Flights to London employed Bristol Britannia 102s wet-leased from BOAC from 16 April, leading to a reduction in Stratocruiser services and the retirement of the type after its final departure for London, via Barcelona, on 31 August. (BOAC's own Stratocruiser services on the route had ceased on 31 May.) By the end of 1959, an order for two Britannias was placed and a service to Conakry was introduced. In 1960, three Vickers Viscounts were ordered on 20 April. Ghanaian President Kwame Nkrumah was accused of being too aligned to the West, and hence he entered into agreements with the Soviets and on 18 August, six Ilyushin Il-18s, at a cost of £670,000 each, were ordered. After having initially expected to be delivered on 20 November, the first two of six Il-18s was delivered to Accra on 3 December and were initially crewed and maintained by Soviet personnel while Ghanaian personnel were trained. The aircraft entered service on routes from Accra to Lagos and Dakar, to Addis Ababa via Kano, and Nairobi via Léopoldville. Net profits for the year 1960 totaled US$462,000. In November 1960, the USSR also delivered a single Antonov An-12 to Ghana Airways.

The airline placed an order with Boeing in January 1961 for two Rolls-Royce Conway-powered Boeing 707-420s, and an order was also placed for three Vickers VC10s. The order for the two Boeings, valued at US$17,500,000, saw the airline planning flights to the United States from July 1962, with additional plans to begin flights to Tokyo and Sydney. A weekly Britannia service to Beirut, via Kano and Cairo, was inaugurated on 4 February 1961, making Ghana Airways the first West African airline to serve the Lebanese capital.

It was reported in January 1961 that the Nkrumah administration desired minimal foreign influence in Ghanaian affairs and saw Ghana Airways as a prime symbol of Ghana's statehood. On 14 February 1961, the Ghanaian government reached an agreement with BOAC to buy the latter out of their 40% share in the airline for a reported £160,000. The check was presented to Sir Duncan Cumming on 15 February, who at the same time signed a contract renewing the management assistance contract, which dated back to July 1958. On delivery of the second Britannia, in December 1960, the new turboprops took over service from the wet-leased BOAC aircraft on the airline's route to London. In June 1961, Ghana Airways commenced the first-ever non-stop Accra-London air connection, also using Britannias, and in July the government announced that the airline would be reorganized. The order for two Boeing 707s, which had been placed in January 1961, was cancelled in August due to difficulties in financing the purchase; in 1961 the airline lost US$800,000. The airline took delivery of the three Viscounts and an additional two Il-18s in 1962, for a total of eight Ilyushins. A weekly flight from Accra to Kumasi, Tamale, Ouagadougou, Mopti, Ségou and Bamako was inaugurated on 4 July 1962 utilising a Douglas DC-3. The pool arrangement with BOAC was terminated in November 1962, three years before its expected July 1965 expiry, after Ghana Airways signed a pool agreement with Alitalia covering flights between Accra and Rome. BOAC saw this arrangement with the Italian airline to be in competition with their agreement with the Ghanaian airline, under which Ghana Airways would be required to sell tickets for both airlines on the Accra-London route, which in the case of the Alitalia would be operated via Rome. By January 1963 the relationship with BOAC was almost nonexistent, as British United Airways took over general sales agent duties for the airline in the United Kingdom and Cunard Eagle was responsible for major maintenance on the airlines' aircraft. However, BOAC continued to provide passenger ground handling services for the airline at Heathrow Airport. By this time, the airline was operating domestic flights from Accra to Kumasi, Takoradi and Tamale, with regional flights being operated to Abidjan, Bamako, Bathurst, Conakry, Dakar, Freetown, Lagos and Monrovia. The airlines' international route network saw the airline flying to Addis Ababa, Beirut, Cairo, Khartoum, London, Rabat, Rome and Zürich.

Flights to Asmara were added in early 1963, and the flights with Il-18s continued to Aden in the Aden Protectorate, while in March the airline began flights to Switzerland and Moscow, although those flights were short-lived. In September 1963, the airline joined the International Air Transport Association, becoming its ninety-third member, and they returned four of their eight Il-18s to the Soviet Union after determining that they were surplus to the airline's requirements. In 1961, it was reported that in three months of operation on the Accra-Khartoum route, the airline had carried only 12 revenue passengers. It was also reported in 1962 that the airline was only utilising the aircraft collectively for no more than 36 hours of flight time per week. The airline signed a lease agreement with Swissair in October 1963 for the wet-lease operation of Convair 990 jetliners on the Accra-London route.

The Viscounts were put up for sale in November 1964, and the airline began a pool agreement with Nigeria Airways, which saw Ghana Airways being given cabotage rights from Lagos to Cairo and Beirut via Kano and Addis Ababa. Midway through February 1965, the contract with Swissair came to an end, and the Vickers VC10 took its place. In the same month, the Britannias were withdrawn. The first VC10 was delivered to Accra on 18 December 1964 and initially conducted proving and training flights, before entering service on 15 February 1965 on the route to London. The second VC10 was delivered to the airline in June 1965, enabling services to Beirut to commence. Ghana Airways operated the aircraft in a configuration of 20 first class and 87 economy class seats.

Following the February 1966 coup in which Nkrumah's regime was overthrown, the new National Liberation Council (NLC) took steps to eliminate loss-making routes from the Ghana Airways network, which Nkrumah had kept open in order to show the Ghanaian flag. However, the NLC continued Nkrumah's policy of directing Ghana Airways to operate routes based upon politics but forced the airline to stop operations to Cairo because of the support for Nkrumah given by Egyptian President Gamal Abdel Nasser.