Meet Ghana’s youngest female commercial pilot, Audrey Maame Esi Swatson

Born on February 23, 1997, Maame Esi Swatson, a product of University of Ghana Basic School, Ghana Christian High School and Mach1 Aviation Academy became the youngest female commercial pilot in Ghana at age 21.

Now a First Officer with Passion Air, a Ghanaian airline company, Audrey flies the Dash8 Q-400 aircraft.

She first went to the Mach1 Aviation Academy in South Africa, for her flight training when she was 18 years old after completing her secondary education. At age 19, she had her first solo flight with Mach1 Aviation Academy and went on to obtain her Commercial Pilot Licence at age 21.

Like every career, Miss Swatson had her own topsy turvy moments.

“Apart from God and my parents, I owe everything I am and everything I hope to be to school. Without the education I have received during my lifetime, the friends I have met and have networked with, the great teachers that have been there for me since day one, I would not be able to move on to a more positive place in my life. I would not be able to have a chance to even become a pilot, to be given a chance to inspire other children that whatever they dream of, they can actually be. Education has fulfilled me and I am a more positive person because of it,” she recounted in a media interview.

She is currently the CEO of an aviation company called Excel Aviation, with the dream to aid young women like her to fulfil their dreams.

Audrey Esi Swatson was celebrated by the Ministry of Aviation. In 2016 she attended a sponsored conference in the USA as the first African female pilot by International Women in Aviation. She was nominated and honoured at The Future Awards Africa Prize for Young Person of the Year (Ghana)