50 YEARS AGO GHANA AIRWAYS TIMETABLE 01/04/1966

GHANA AIRWAYS - 50 YEARS AGO

50 years ago, Ghana airways published this timetable and  we wish to all readers of the blog a happy Month of April

A few words about the company

Ghana Airways was founded in 1958 ( July 4) and until it ceased operations in 2004, it had like  many other African airlines a very turbulent story .
The company's capital was divided between the Ghanaian government (60%) and BOAC (40%) together with a 7-year management contract.
Operations began with  pool services between BOAC and Ghana Airways on the lucrative Accra to London service.
On October 1, 1958, operations began its own aircraft when a Heron was delivered and introduced on domestic services. The Douglas Dc3 followed in March 1959.An order of 3Visckers viscount was made on April 1960. Until the fall of Nkrumah in 1966 (Feb) the company witnessed a burst of destinations served : Beirut, Kano, Rome, Zurich, Nairobi, Kano, Kinshasa, Bamako, Lagos, Dakar, Bathurst etc... served by a fleet of Il118 acquired from Russia. The Il 18s were ill fitted to operate under the climatic conditions of West Africa engendering a lot of problems. The London route was operated by leased Stratocruiser wet leased from BOAC followed by the Bristol Britannias ( both leased and owned)




By Ken Fielding/http://www.flickr.com/photos/kenfielding, CC BY-SA 3.0, https://commons.wikimedia.org

DC8 from Alitalia (GH had signed a management contract) and Swissair's Convair Coronado 990A . In 1961, the Ghanaian government bought back the remaining 40% capital owned by BOAC for an estimated STG 160000.
Although the company ordered in 1961 2 Boeing 707-420, the aircraft were never delivered as financing could not be arranged. The company turned then to the BAC VC10 which it ordered 3 , but only 2 were delivered 9G-ABO (delivered 27/1/65).

 and 9G-ABP delivered on 16/6/65



By Ralf Manteufel - http://www.airliners.net/photo/Ghana-Airways/Vickers-VC10-Srs1102/1255370/L/, GFDL 1.2, https://commons.wikimedia.org/


9G-ABP was leased to Middle Airlines AirLiban and was destroyed at Beirut International Airport on December 28, 1968 during the raid by the Israeli army.

This timetable dated 50 years ago provide us with the following unformation :
Destinatiins served are :
In Ghana : Accra, Takorafi,Tamale and Kumasi linjed as following :
Accra-Kumasi (9 x w), Accra-Kumasi-Tamale (Daiy), Accra-Takoradi-Kumasi (2 x w)
All flights are operated with the DC3
In West and Sub-Saharan Africa :
Dakar, Abidjan,Monrovia, Bathurst (now Banjul),Freetwon ,and Ouagadougou. Flight are operated with a mix of DC4 and Vickeers Viscounts as follows
-The coastliner :Accra-Abidjan-Monrovia-Freetown-Dakar (1 x w by- VV) and Accra-Abidjan-Monrovia-Freetown-Bathurst-Dakar  (1 x w- byVV)
-Accra-Abidjan (1 x w-by DC3)
-Accra-Ouagadougou (1 x w-by DC3) (although suspended until further notice in this edition)
-Accra-Lagos (7 x w-by VV)
Europe and Middle East  as follows
All flights are operated with the VC10
Accra-Lagos-Cairo-Beirut (1xw), Accra-London (1xw), Accra-Rome-London (1xw) and Accra-Zurich-London (1xw).

TOTAL NETWORK 25779 km

Translating the above with maps

DC3 NETWORK

VICKERS VISCOUNT NETWORK

BAC VC10 NETWORK