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Seychelles welcomes Austrian Airline |27 October 2017

Seychelles yesterday welcomed the first Austrian Airline flight, which touched down at 8.49am at the Pointe Larue international airport. 

The Boeing 767, fully booked with 214 passengers, was saluted on arrival with the customary water cannons.

The maiden flight was inaugurated with a red carpet ribbon cutting ceremony after which its passengers were treated to entertainment comprising traditional music and dance.

The aircraft took 9 hours non-stop to fly from Austria to Seychelles

Coming directly from Vienna, the Austrian Airline will operate the winter season direct weekly flight to Seychelles every Thursday. It will leave Austria every Wednesday, arriving in Seychelles every Thursday morning. It will leave Seychelles the same day.

The arrival of the Austrian Airline comes after initial agreement and discussions in 2014 which have resulted in the signing of the air service agreement between the Republic of Seychelles and the Austrian federal government in May this year.

The Austrian Airline, which belongs to the Lufthansa German Airlines’ group, is Seychelles’ third direct non-stop air service between Europe and Seychelles after Air Seychelles’ three non-stop flights to Paris and Condor’s two non-stop flights to Frankfurt.

Present also at the Seychelles International Airport to welcome the Austrian Airline were the Minister for Tourism, Civil Aviation, Ports and Marine, Maurice Loustau-Lalanne, the general manager sales Lufthansa group for African Region Tobias Ernst, principal secretary for tourism Anne Lafortune, principal secretary for civil aviation, ports and marine Garry Albert, the chairman of the Seychelles Civil Aviation Authority (SCAA) David Savy, SCAA chief executive Gilbert Faure, outgoing chief executive of Air Seychelles Roy Kinnear and other officials from the Ministry of Tourism, Civil Aviation, Ports and Marine and of SCAA.  

The Austrian Airline’s captain, Martin Hoblik, accompanied by two female crew members, were the first to descend the aircraft and they were greeted by the VIP officials.

Minister Loustau-Lalanne and Mr Ernst cut the ribbon to inaugurate the flight.

After a photo session, the VIPs headed to the VIP lounge for the welcome ceremony and the cake cutting.

Minister Lalanne said that the arrival of the airline in Seychelles is cause for celebrations.

“The first is the airline has made history as a first Austrian inaugural flight to Seychelles and the second is the celebration of 40 years of excellent diplomatic relations between Seychelles and Austria which was confirmed by the arrival of the inaugural flight,” said Minister Loustau-Lalanne.

He said that since January, Seychelles has welcomed 5759 Austrian visitors, a 40% increase as compared to the same period last year.

“Another reason which is cause for celebration is that 34 years ago to this day on October 26, 1983, Air Seychelles international operations was started, so it is a great double celebration that today Air Seychelles has been flying internationally for 34 years which is quite an incredibly achievement. Finally the other reason we need to celebrate is that today (October 26) is a very auspicious day as it is also the National Day of Austria,” said Minister Loustau-Lalanne who had before said he would have loved to make a toast but was not in a diplomatic environment.

He praised and congratulated the airline for helping to fill an important gap in the high-end European tourism market.  

Mr Ernst of Lufthansa group who was representing the chief executive of Austrian Airline, Kay Kratky who was unable to come, thanked everyone for welcoming the flight and said “Austrian Airline has today opened its fourth new destination this year with the Seychelles, focusing on high-end tourism which is so important for this lovely country and I can tell from my own experience that this country has everything the tourists from Germany, Austria, Switzerland  and Europe want”.

He described Seychelles as the new cherry among other Austrian Airline destination flights. The three other new Austrian Airline destinations are Mauritius, Colombo and Havana.

The ceremony ended with the cutting of a commemorative cake by Minister Loustau-Lalanne and Mr Ernst and later the VIPs were guided on a tour of the aircraft.

The Boeing 767 left Seychelles later for Vienna with no passengers as the arriving visitors will enjoy the whole week until the second flight arrives on Thursday next week.

Passengers wishing to fly Austrian Airline have to book online on Austrian airline.com.

 

 

 

 

 

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