Ghana withdrew Lufthansa’s right to offer daily service from Accra to Frankfurt (via Lagos) because Lufthansa refused to pay royalties to the Ghana state airline. That meant that, by treaty, they retained the right to twice weekly service, which they have chosen not to offer — viewing it as a money loser (most of the fixed costs without many seats to amortize them over). And then Ghana goes ballistic over Lufthansa’s “bad faith” decision to pull out of Accra!

Ultimately the government was unsuccessful at blackmailing Lufthansa for US$4 million, refused to back down from its threats, and now has lost Lufthansa’s international service. Clearly the people of Ghana are not better off for the actions of its government.

Sad, really.