Air Seychelles - More than 300 people register to be repatriated |04 May 2020

Mr Althuis (Photo: Jude Morel)

Air Seychelles is hoping to operate repatriation flights for visitors and gainful occupation permit (GOP) holders who are still in Seychelles before the end of May.

In a press conference on Thursday the airline’s chief executive, Remco Althuis, noted that over 300 people have registered to be repatriated.

Interests are particularly high among nationals from Sri Lanka, India and Mauritius, as well as a few requests for Europe and North Africa.

“The goal is to collect enough requests for a specific destination and see how we can operate a flight – ideally combine it with a pick-up cargo on the return – and then we will contact the customers,” Mr Althuis stated.

“Of course, there is quite some work that needs to happen with the government of that country because they have to be ready to accept these people.”

For the repatriation flights to occur, Air Seychelles will need the approval of both the Seychelles health department and the equivalent authority in the country Air Seychelles is flying to.

Mr Althuis however noted that Air Seychelles can only operate flights to destinations within the flight range of its aircraft, which is about 6 and a half hours.

“We could also fly the repatriation flights to a hub where customers can transit to their final destination but this also has to take into account the local situation at that hub,” he added.

The Dubai International Airport for instance, usually the busiest travel hub in the world, is presently not allowing transit traffic.

To ensure social distancing on these repatriation flights, Air Seychelles plans to keep the middle seats vacant in the economy class and operate with a reduced number of seats.

“We have 168 seats and we only intend to use 112,” Mr Althuis highlighted.

In response to when these repatriation flights are expected to start, Mr Althuis replied that it might be possible within the next two to three weeks.

Air Seychelles also expects to resume its commercial domestic schedule as of today, May 4, with two flights per day, which may increase depending on demand.

Air Seychelles’ domestic service only conducted six medic-aid flights during the second phase of the prohibition of movement period.

Meanwhile Mr Althuis has affirmed that Air Seychelles’ financial situation is under control, noting that the airline is not losing money from its recent venture into cargo operations. He added that the company is not forecasting any lay-offs at present.

“In this period, it’s all about containing cash and we do not want to operate any cargo flights that is not paid for. We have two main cost components which are airplane leases and salaries. The government has stepped in to help us with the payroll and we received a deferral on the aircraft leases from the lessors. So Air Seychelles is hardly spending any money; the flights we operate pay for themselves and then a bit.”

Air Seychelles has only refunded about 850 flight tickets so far, representing around US $250,000, since many of its customers have been offered the option to defer their flights to a later date free of charge.

Elsie Pointe