Kotoka International Airport Traveller Complains Over GH¢1,725 Excess Luggage Fee

• Activist Stella Nyanzi has complained about the exorbitant fees charged for excess luggage at the Kotoka International Airport
• The activist described the situation as dodgy, saying travellers are forced to make the payments
• Nyanzi showed the Ghana cedi equivalent of the cash she paid in a photo posted on Facebook

Feminist and political activist Stella Nyanzi had an unpleasant experience at the Kotoka International Airport.

In comments on Facebook, Nyanzi, a Ugandan, complained about being made to pay GH¢1,725 for excess luggage by an airline.

She said her bag was overweight by just three kilograms but still had to pay the fine.

“The dodgy Ghanaian ring of US dollars guzzlers has a Walter and an Ernest, among others who force travellers with excess luggage to pay exorbitant amounts of money.”

Read also

Sex worker fighting with taxi driver over payment dies after being run over by truck on Kasoa-Winneba highway

“In total disbelief, I watched myself walking to the Stanbic machine at Kotoka International Airport, withdrawing the said exorbitant amount of cedis, walking back to the KLM window and paying the chubby-cheeked teller,” Nyanzi recounted.

She showed the GH¢1,725 of the cash she paid and the receipt she was given on Facebook.

Nyanzi also shared further disappointment when she said her connecting flight after leaving Accra to Amsterdam was cancelled.

“I find myself separated indefinitely from my big bag with food and books brought with love from Uganda,” she complained.

Theft at Kotoka airport

YEN.com.gh reported separately that there was a case of stolen gold bars at the Kotoka International Airport involving a customs officer and two businessmen.

The gold bars weighed to be 75 kilograms and estimated to cost over $4.3 million was in Ghana in transit to Dubai.

Police said the three accused persons conspired to steal the gold bars purchased from Sierra Leone by two UAE citizens and one Australian citizen.

Read also

Ghanaian woman living in Australia says she benefitted from a lottery win: "I built a three-bedroom house"

Ghana cancels filling of embarkation and disembarkation forms at Kotoka

Meanwhile, YEN.com.gh has reported in a separate story that travellers arriving at the Kotoka International Airport will no longer be required to fill out embarkation and disembarkation forms.

Instead, they will only provide information such as their addresses in Ghana and abroad, telephone numbers, flight details (airline and flight number); the purpose of the visit and their profession.

In a statement issued on March 20, the Ghana Immigration Service said the new move is part of the national digitalisation agenda.

GACL laments service charges

YEN.com.gh reported in a separate story the concerns from the company about the Airport Passenger Service Charge, which is currently GH¢5.

The staff feel the charge of GH¢5 is too small to develop Ghana's domestic airports.

The fee is charged to each domestic passenger as a component of the flight charges and is used to develop domestic airport infrastructure.

Source: YEN.com.gh