British Airways increases Accra-London route

 British Airways (BA) is adding three extra flights to its Accra-London route.

It currently operates seven flights a week but from October onwards the service will increase to ten weekly flights. There will be two flights in the morning and evening on Mondays, Wednesdays and Saturdays, with one flight on the other days.

The move is seen as a victory for BA over Virgin Atlantic which operates its last Accra-London service on 23 September. The two rivals competed directly for three years, with Virgin Atlantic offering five weekly flights between Accra and London. Virgin blamed Ghana's "exceptionally high" price of fuel and the scarcity of slots at Heathrow that forced it to offer "less attractive" flight times.

Making obvious reference to the demise of Virgin in Ghana, BA's commercial manager for west Africa, Kola Olayinka said “When an opportunity presents itself, a good private organisation will fit into it”.

Now the sole operator of the route BA said other airlines would try to compete with it, a prospect the company said it would welcome.