CHRISTIANS, MUSLIMS and traditionalists gathered in prayer so that GHANA INTERNATIONAL AIRLINES, our new airline, would have spiritual uplift.

Ministers of State, traditional rulers and other important dignitaries were also present to lend support.

It was all fanfare, pomp and pageantry, and the hope that this time around, our so-called new airline will not plummet to earth in one disintegrating and irreparable heap.

While we allow hope to grow and blossom within our breasts, we should not, however, fail to be cautious as we find reasons for the collapse of our old star in the sky. I do not have all the reasons but I can hazard a guess or two.

You cannot delve into the causes of the failure of Ghana Airways without roping in the staff, the very staff who kept threatening to rain fire and brimstone on the head of the Government for an alleged failure to pay them their severance pay or whatever they chose to call it.

Generally speaking, one can say that some Ghana Airways staff turned our national airline into the goose that laid the golden egg and saw to it that they took the egg without sharing it with anyone outside their circle.

If that was bad enough, what was worse was that they could not be satisfied with the egg so they carved up the goose to take out all the eggs they supposed could be found within the belly of the bird.

To be specific, Ghana Airways staff fully exploited all the privileges and perquisites that were generously allowed them and the whole army of wives, husbands, other relations and friends.

While passengers who had paid to keep the airline aloft got stranded or had to leave their luggage behind, some airways staff and their hangers-on did not have to sweat to get on board with their goods.

The hassle which passengers had to go through in sometimes fruitless attempts to retrieve luggage had to be experienced to be believed. The passenger was lucky if half the contents of his suitcase did not get stolen.

I am talking from experience and not hearsay.

If you never traveled by Ghana Airways, then you were the luckiest person on earth. You see, buying a ticket and even confirming your flight days before the journey did not guarantee you a seat on the plane.

I remember the experience a close relation of mine went through before he finally made it to the United States where he currently lives.

Against better advice, he decided to come to Ghana by a Ghana Airways plane.

Came time for him to go back and that was when his problems began. He had taken the precaution to confirm his flight but that did not save him.

He was told that the flight for that particular day was not certain. He was put on stand-by and even then, there was no assurance that he would get a seat.

He needed to return to the United States in time to register for his studies and for his work. That cut no ice with the Ghana Airways officials.

To cut a long story short, let me say that he eventually got to the United States with a firm determination not to travel by Ghana Airways again.

I have told you my own story of how, though fourth in the queue and luggage checked in, I still could not board the plane even though my luggage was taken away, leaving me stranded at Kotoka International Airport.

You mean hotel accommodation for me and the other passengers who got stranded?

My friend, who born dog? Where we spent another night was no concern of Ghana Airways.

I have also told you how I was forced to buy a first class ticket and how the plane that brought me to Ghana did not have a first class compartment and how I even thanked my God that I found a seat after going up and down the aisle in desperation.

Did you ever have the opportunity to watch passengers going to board a foreign airline and passengers going on board a Ghana Airways plane?

If you did, then did you notice the rather calm and leisurely manner in which the passengers boarded the foreign-run plane and the frantic chaos that accompanied the boarding of a Ghana Airways plane?

The shameful fact was that Ghana Airways staff perfected overbooking and the flight cancellation into an art for which they became famous, or notorious, if you prefer that word. Still vivid in our minds is the picture of chaos, confusion, hypertension-causing anxiety and personal tragedies the last time Ghana Airways criminally disappointed passengers travelling to the United States, Britain and Germany.

I believe that some of the passengers still have nightmares and cold sweat at night. A national day of shame indeed.

After the iniquities of some staff have destroyed Ghana Airways, they claim that they could have kept the airline airborne and its accounts healthily in the black. Imagine that!

Of course, I will not leave out managerial incompetence as a cause in the inability of Ghana Airways to remain airborne.

It is possible, even probable, that some of the chief executive officers, or some of the boards appointed were not quite up to the mark in spite of the hefty salaries some of them earned.

Still, I believe that a Mafia within the airline was determined to see to it that no chief executive officer, no matter how competent, qualified and experienced, would succeed in turning the fortunes of the airline.

One can also not discount governmental interference in the running of the airline.

In fact, it has to be admitted that, if state-run corporations failed in the past, it was partly due to the heavy, interfering hand of government.

I am no management expert but let me give one or two suggestions for ensuring that Ghana International Airlines (GIA) does not go the way of its immediate, unfortunate predecessor.

First, the ruinous intervention or interference of Central government should be avoided. Mr. Kwadwo Mpiani, the unofficial Minister of Civil Aviation, should give management a free hand.

He should not turn himself into a distributor of 'protocol' tickets, especially for the hangers-on and 'heavyweights' in society who can afford to pay for them anyway.

The competence of staff to be hired should be the factor and not how much an uncle or a mother contributed to the running of the party.

Then also allowances, bonuses and other 'perks' of office should take into account the financial health of the airline. The new bird should not bleed to death.

An appeal has gone out to Ghanaians to patronize the new airline. If the airline proves efficient, there will be no need for calls on our sense of patriotism.

PS. Did I hear that, when the maiden flight landed at Gatwick Airport in the United Kingdom, passengers were unduly delayed because the luggage compartment would not open? Not an auspicious beginning, I am afraid.