Make Delta first choice: Flight attendant woos Ghanaians

A GHANAIAN-born Flight Attendant with Delta Air Lines, Eric Adu, is wooing Ghanaian travellers to make Delta their first choice.

He said flying Delta, especially the Accra-New York Route, gives customers an elevated experience compared to others.

"With Delta, it is a direct flight where you leave here 9am and get to New York at 4pm the same day.”

"No transit, no fear of losing baggage. We now have an enhanced comfortable aircraft with more legroom," Mr Adu said in an exclusive interview in Accra.

Mr Adu, who was sharing his experience in Accra on his 16 years working with the airline, said it had been a great opportunity working with such a multi-million international company.

“I have never regretted joining Delta because the company cares for staff and makes us comfortable,” he told this writer, adding, “I will stay at Delta till I retire because they have a very good package for staff.”

He said considering the fact that a number of customers who patronised the Accra-New York Route were Ghanaians and some of them had challenges with the English Language, “a colleague and I took the decision to go the extra mile by introducing two Ghanaian languages on board to assist such customers”.

"I’m aware we have a lot of Ghanaians who do not speak English. I have had so many challenges on board and I had to come down to the level of the passengers to talk to them in the local dialect so they can understand.”

"So, we make announcements in both Twi and Ga and our people always feel great because they can connect and associate themselves with those languages," Mr Adu said.

"I included the local languages in the announcements because we always have elderly people who do not speak English, but are on the flight to visit their children or babysit their grandchildren.”

"So, when they see you speaking the local languages, they feel comfortable talking to you. They are always very happy," he revealed, adding that, "(Raymond and I), do it just for the love of the people and our beloved country."

Encouragement

“I was encouraged by an old colleague also from Ghana, who had retired after 40 plus years with the company. She used to do the announcement in Fante, Ewe and Ga.

So, when I joined, she encouraged me to do it and I also encouraged Raymond Quartey when he later joined. So now it's just the two of us. We do it on a regular basis when we fly,” Mr Adu remarked.

Menu

He said aside from the inclusion of local languages in the announcements, "we have also included local food on our menu to make our passengers feel at home on the flight."

"You can now get Ghanaian dishes and some local stuff on board Delta.”

“This is the first time in an international flight that passengers are offered choices of entrée that are all influenced by local preferences and flavours,” he said.

Other opportunities

Touching on other opportunities flying Delta, Mr Adu said, “you get more by joining Delta's Sky mile programme to earn miles and gives you the opportunity to move up to higher status.

"This can get you an upgrade to Delta One o4, Delta Premium Service or Comfort Plus.”

"You can also apply your miles towards your next ticket purchase. Great Perks at Delta," Mr Adu said.