Seychelles and South Africa renew air services arrangements |16 May 2013

The signing of this new agreement comes at an opportune time, when Seychelles and South Africa are strengthening ties in the air traffic domain, with the coming into place of a code share arrangement between Air Seychelles and South African Airways, announced recently.

Air Seychelles also recently increased the number of flights in operation to this ninth largest African country.

The economic benefit cannot be overemphasised as more than 18,000 passengers travel on the South African- Seychelles route yearly for the past two years, with cargo transportation growing by 19% in 2012, compared to the previous year.

“It has been a very fruitful conciliation, and we are happy of the outcome. It is a model for the region," said Mr Faure.

“South Africa is an important hub in Africa and a gateway not only to the rest of Africa but also to southern America. This new agreement has established the framework necessary to facilitate such operations calling for further growth in people and cargo traffic. My ministry will continue to encourage the airlines to pursue partnership arrangements which will promote the implementation of the twin centre tourism concept as well as other business avenues which could be pursued by the community. In the end this is all part and parcel of our regional integration initiative as a member of the Southern African Development Community,” said the Minister for Home Affairs and Transport Joel Morgan, following the signing of the agreement.

The SCAA is working closely with the Ministry of Home Affairs and Transport, the Ministry of Foreign Affairs, Air Seychelles and relevant foreign carriers in order to fast track many more similar agreements  underway.

The negotiations in South Africa came only days after a regional air transport conference which was held in Mauritius, whereby Seychelles strongly called for enhanced liberalisation to improve connectivity in the region.