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Archive -Seychelles

Seychellois pilots in the spotlight |07 March 2016

 

 

 

The national airline Air Seychelles last week hosted an event to present some of its pilots to the media.

The aim was to allow the pilots to talk about the different training courses they undergo on the turboprop and jet fleets and to provide the press with the opportunity to interview them about their experience of working for the flag carrier of Seychelles.

The meeting took place at the Air Seychelles head office and was attended by newly promoted Twin Otter captains and instructors, as well as freshly graduated Airbus A320 first officers, who recently completed a training course conducted by Etihad Airways.

Air Seychelles currently has 60 Seychellois pilots, 27 who operate domestic interisland flights and 33 on its international operations.

Of the 27 pilots making up the Twin Otter community, five are licensed instructors and two are licensed examiners.

During the event three Twin Otter first officers were promoted to new Twin Otter captains and they are Rieul Gendron, Christopher Betts and France Anacoura. However only Mr Gendron and Mr Betts were present to receive their bars from Roy Kinnear, the airline’s chief executive. 

New Twin Otter instructors are Mervin Mondon, Christopher Betts, Bertrand Mein and Steven Savy.

New Airbus A320 First Officers are Anthony D’Offay, Phillipe Sorry, Archille Young, Achilles Hoareau, Shiv Padayachy, Terry Louis-Marie, Julius Nancy, Allen Dubignon, Randy Françoise and Ronny Morel.

Mr Kinnear said this event was a great chance for the media to learn about the pilots’ jobs, responsibilities and careers with Air Seychelles.

 “We are very proud of our all-Seychellois team of pilots, who have passed demanding training, have extensive flying experience and every day bring thousands of guests to and from Seychelles. Air Seychelles is a strong believer in the value of investing in human resources, including our pilots, who have access to world-class training in Abu Dhabi and a clear career path from our domestic to our international fleet. The capable and highly-skilled pilots, as well as the rest of our team, are the aviation professionals who will support Air Seychelles into the next exciting stage of its development,” he said.

“We’ve put steps in place to grow and develop the pilot community and most importantly the Seychellois content of our pilot community in the years ahead as we recognise the future needs of the airline,” he added.

On the panel to answer the media’s queries were Mr Kinnear, chief instructor Airbus captain Donald Young and Twin Otter captain Gendron, Twin Otter instructor Mondon and Airbus A320 First Officer D’Offay.

Asked about the importance of the qualification, Instructor Mondon said: “To me it’s very important as flight instructors are the backbone of aviation because there is no other job in aviation that has a more direct impact on flight safety and efficiency.”

For anybody wishing to embark on such a career Captain Gendron said “the person needs to make sure that they are okay medically to start the training but they need to investigate the different ways they can do the actual training whether it’s through government sponsorship or personal funding. I would also advise them to speak to some of the pilots to know what the job is like, what the progression is like and I think we have a great new training department for new pilots but also for the captain upgrade as well within the domestic fleet”.

 

 

 

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