Ghanaian airliner Goldstar Air as part of efforts to indigenize its operations and rely on Ghanaians to man the aircrafts has successfully ended a two day cabin crew recruitment exercise in Accra.

Out of over four thousand Ghanaian professionals who applied for the jobs, two hundred applicants were shortlisted in the first Phase of the exercise and are yet to meet management on Thursaday October 6, at Airside hotel for further assessment.

According to authorities, the names of the new recruits are being sent to the Ghana civil aviation authority for training and later moved to the company's hub in the Caribbean to begin operations.

In a press release copied to GhanaWeb, the Chief Executive of Goldstar Air Eric Bannerman, said the focus of the company is to promote and protect the interest of Ghanaians, in view of this, Goldstar Air will roll out special services tailored to the needs of the aviation and tourism sectors.

He however added “the selected applicants will be the face of the airline, they will also be selling Ghanaian culture, interacting with passengers in the local languages and making announcements in the local languages. Some of the Ghanaian local languages which will be the first of its kind on a commercial flight will be Ewe, Fante, Ga, Akan and hausa”.

“Other new things to be introduced by Goldstar Air is the local food, local drinks, Ghanaian movies and documentaries on Ghana´s tourist sites in all our aircrafts flying in and out of Accra,¨ he said.

This he said will showcase and promote the rich Ghanaian culture. He also mentioned that his company is working closely with some Hotels and Guest houses to have exclusive packages for organizations and institutions such as Churches, Student bodies in Europe, America and the Caribbean on visit to Ghana.

On his side, the Director of Communications at Goldstar Air Theophilus Eze, said when the airline gets off the ground it will rely on expatriates as the cockpit crew but will unfold a tailor-made course of study to be undertaken by some Ghanaians who would be sent abroad to train as pilots in order to have a handle on piloting the Boeing series which Goldstar Air will be using.

After the training, the company´s pilots will do a period of apprenticeship with the expatriate colleagues to get hands on experience and knowledge in line with the Goldstar Air plans of replacing foreign pilots with Ghanaians.

”The crew will be based at main hub which will be Accra and the three others which will be Europe, Caribbean and North America hubs.

Our European hub will be Stansted airport which will service flights going to Accra and the Caribbean, making some pick ups in some European cities before its destination in the Caribbean. Our hub in the Caribbean will service flights to Baltimore and Stansted. whiles the Accra hub services West Africa, Dubai and Guangzhou, Baltimore hub will as well service flights to Accra and the Caribbean.

This will see our Ghanaian cabin crew interchanging and working within cities in the West Africa, Caribbean, North America and Europe”.

According to Theophilus Eze, some of the cabin crew recruits are former Ghanaian beauty pageant.

“Pageants who have been among the top four of their respective pageants, notably the Miss Tourism, Ghana’s Most Beautiful Pageant show and others. Our brand ambassador Akweley who is the head of the cabin crew represented the Greater Accra region during the Ghana’s Most Beautiful Pageant show,” he said.

The brand ambassador Akweley also noted that, as a lead representative of the airline, her role will be, to have an oversight of the Ghanaian cabin crew and also market the country to the array of passengers by throwing more lights on the rich cultural heritage of mother Ghana when the aircraft finally takes the ground.