Chief Executive Officer of Goldstar Air, a private Ghanaian airline, Mr. Eric Bannerman, has urged the youth in Ghana to embrace the employment opportunities available within the aviation sector of the country.
He says as a country, there is a need to build the technical know-how of more Ghanaians who are willing to venture into the sector to take advantage of the opportunities available, because the airline is coming up with Goldstar City project which comprises Maintenance Repair Organization and Training facilities at Tamale for Pilots, Ground service crew, Cabin crew, Service personnel in maintenance, Counter agents, Travel agents, Tour operators, Country managers, Station managers, IT managers, Accountants, Flight dispatches, Divers, Marketing personnel, Air Marshals, Cargo agents, Catering services, Hotel accommodation and Fuel suppliers, as a support to the government’s move to develop the Tamale International Airport to create more jobs and further grow the communities.
The airline has acquired the Air Carrier License (ACL) from the Ghana Civil Aviation Authority and awaiting the completion of the Air Operator’s Certificate (AOC) after which it will commence the operating scheduled and non-scheduled passenger and cargo service.
Mr. Bannerman recounted the challenges some operators faced in their bid to get the requisite staff to man their operations.
Despite this hindrance, the CEO is of the fervent belief that the cost of flight operations in Ghana would be moderate when facilities are ready.
“Our intentions as an airline is to build a State of the Art and trend setting aviation industry, able to compete within the international market in terms of Safety, Quality, Reliability, Punctuality, Efficiency and Costs.
“People in the airline industry must be attentive to this issue and empower Ghanaian youth to venture into the sector because with the continually growing influx of visitors to Ghana, it will stand to benefit us as a country when we have experts in all areas of this industry that have skills and qualifications meeting global standards – plus we keep the skills in-country and the money here too,” he stated.
According to the Goldstar Air CEO, some reasons for the low patronage of domestic flights should be checked to see how they can march the fares of the busses, “because maybe there might be the need to reduce prices to the barest minimum to attract more people to patronize their services. When gains are made in the area of encouraging more Ghanaians into the sector it would positively impact the Country’s economy”
“I’m glad about the recent $3B IMF loan approval for Ghana and encourage the present government to invest some of this money into the local airline industry” he said, adding that we thank all those who have been supporting Goldstar Air, the Wings of Ghana, since it’s inception, despite all the negative pictures painted by unknown group of people and also editing and blocking the airline on Wikipedia. We want to put it on record that there is a letter dated 9th October 2017 from the Ghana Civil Aviation Authority signed by the then Director General Mr Simon Allotey to clarify the GCAA Press Release dated 19th September 2017 and also Goldstar Air had Air Carrier License when we entered into agreement with the Liberia government to set up Lone Star Air.
“Let me personally say that what we are still awaiting is the final greenlight from the authorities to take to the skies and provide a beautiful, convenient, customer-centric experience.
“West Africa, despite its Forty-plus airports and over Three Hundred Million people in Fifteen Countries, lacks a strong Airline, Maintenance Repair Organization (MRO), Training Facilities but has no airport hub, therefore, Goldstar Air wants to be a strong carrier initially in west Africa and later the whole of Africa.
Goldstar Air is a wholly-owned Ghanaian airline based in Accra, Ghana, which is ambitious of providing scheduled and non-scheduled passenger air service initially to twelve destinations in USA, Europe, Asia, Middle East, and Africa. learn more about them on their website flygoldstar.com
Source: Press release