Air Seychelles reconnects with Paris: Introduces flights to Mumbai, St Denis and Antananarivo |03 December 2013
Minister Morgan, flanked by Ms Cole and Mr Renaud, speaking at the press conference yesterday
The national carrier Air Seychelles, has announced the reintroduction of direct flights to Paris as from February next year.
The Paris reconnection is part of what has been described by the company as a significant expansion to its international schedule.
The development also comprises the extension of its regional network to include the Malagasy capital Antananarivo, as well as St Denis in Réunion and Mumbai in India.
The announcement was made during a press conference at the Air Seychelles head office at Pointe Larue yesterday afternoon by the airline’s chairman Joel Morgan, who is also the Minister for Home Affairs and Transport.
Also present were Air Seychelles’ deputy chief executive officer and chief financial officer Shirley Cole, general manager for corporate affairs Alan Renaud, and members of the Air Seychelles board and staff.
With the reintroduction of the Paris route, Air Seychelles will be operating two weekly flights to Paris-Orly using an Airbus A330-200 aircraft, with one stop at Abu Dhabi.
Minister Morgan described the stop at the gulf hub of Abu Dhabi as a strategy to pick up additional traffic in order to make the route profitable.
The Paris connectivity will add to plans by a new local company, Seychelles Airlines, to start flying directly to Europe as from June next year.
Air Seychelles has however confirmed that it has been working on its consolidation plan for many months now and that the expansion is not in any way a response to the creation of Seychelles Airlines.
As for the new regional schedule, it will see Air Seychelles operate three return flights per week to Mumbai, and two to Reunion and Antananarivo starting from September next year. This will add to the current three weekly flights to Mauritius and Johannesburg.
The Mumbai flights will also be operated on the same day as those to Johannesburg, giving the opportunity to visitors from India to connect to South Africa and enjoy a two destination holiday.
In the same way, the St Denis and Antananarivo routes will provide further connectivity to France and at the same time enable the route to be viable.
In order to assure the new regional services, Air Seychelles has also announced that it will add a new Airbus A 319 aircraft to its fleet.
It was also revealed during the press conference that Air Seychelles, with its strategic partner Etihad Airways, will also as from next year double its daily connection to Abu Dhabi. The decision has been seen as timely as at the same time Emirates Airlines will be reducing its weekly flights due to renovation works at the Dubai airport.
The increase in the Abu Dhabi flights will not only compensate for Emirates’ temporary scale down, but will also increase Air Seychelles’ connectivity and exposure to the rest of the world.
Minister Morgan cited the request by the tourism trade to reopen flights to Europe in order to further develop the tourism industry, and Air Seychelles’ continuous growth since the start of a strategic partnership with Etihad Airways less than two years ago as the reasons for the expansion. He has qualified the decision as the second phase of the company’s development after the airline rose from a delicate financial situation to move on to buy two new aircraft, reopen the regional routes of Mauritius and Johannesburg, fly to Abu Dhabi and Hong Kong and improve codeshare agreements with partner airlines.
Minister Morgan has described the airline’s new products as a “very bold step on the part of Air Seychelles, but which can be turned into a very viable position if all the elements are in place”.
“I am sure that our strategy will benefit the tourism trade, will benefit the Seychelles’ economy, will create more employment opportunities as we will have to recruit to cater for the increase in services, and will improve the tourism environment as a whole. More importantly, it will increase regional trade and business opportunities. [...] I feel very proud that we are able to achieve this in a short space of barely two and a half years, from an Air Seychelles which was in very dire straits compared to what we are today,” the minister added.
With the new routes and increase in flights, the national airline will see its weekly international services nearly double from 16 to 29 flights per week. This will position Air Seychelles, which has attained 4-star standards and is currently in the process of obtaining 4-star accreditation, as a strong regional airline.
The company has already announced other plans for post 2014 which will include extending codeshare agreements and possibly strengthening the South African route.