Thanks for the comments/questions Prospin and BALEWA. I'd like to take a crack at answering them here.
Have we met our pilot needs for startup? Not an easy or straightforward answer. We have enough pilots in theory and a file filled with hundreds of CVs from around the world, but not necessarily the right profile of pilots with experience on type. We're still very keen to hear from Ghanaian pilots (with any level of experience or lack thereof) and from expats with ERJ-145 ratings (especially trainers). We do have a tentative agreement with an existing ERJ-145 operator to provide us with a few line trainers on secondment for the initial few months and we are also dealing with an agency who claims to be able to supply them on short term contracts. However, more direct recruits will reduce our dependence on costly third party solutions.
Do we have the aircraft already? No, but we have the paperwork in place for deliveries in Q1 next year, concurrent with our anticipated AOC issuance.
Training plan - Our Chief Pilot is a TRE/TRI already but we will be relying on a TRTO for the initial courses. We would like to have as much training capability as possible in-house, but that is subject to our ability to recruit/develop appropriate trainers with the appropriate skill sets. Existing ERJ-145 TREs are welcome to drop us a note anytime!
Maintenance (line and heavy) will be conducted in partnership with a third-party AMO until our own engineering department has sufficient experience on type to support it ourselves. We are always keen to hear from licensed engineers (anyone with Embraer avionics experience especially!) who are interested in relocating to Ghana.
BALEWA - always happy to hear from Ghanaians working abroad. Chances are that one of our team has spoken with some of them already though - there are not that many Ghanaian pilots out there! That said, I wouldn't dream of asking someone to quit a stable job to take a chance on an African startup (unless they were planning on quitting anyway), so in most cases the chats have been more of informational introductions than anything else. Please drop me a note here if anyone is planning on coming through Accra and would like to visit us for a chat and discussion of future possibilities. As for pay, well we have to be competitive with others in the West African market if we want to attract candidates, but at the same time we cannot afford to pay the "Nigeria premiums" that draw many pilots there. Never had anyone cringe at the ballpark numbers we've discussed yet (not too many wide smiles either though!), so we're probably pegged in the right range.