Commercial flights resume |26 March 2021

A group of visitors arriving from an El Al flight from Tel Aviv yesterday afternoon (Photo: Louis Toussaint)

By Christophe Zialor

Flights to Seychelles have officially begun with the reopening of the airport yesterday.

Emirates EK705 flight which touched down at 0652 was the first to land with 332 tourists.

Jean Hassan, senior public relations officer for the Seychelles Civil Aviation Authority (SCAA) told Seychelles NATION that operations for the reopening went smoothly and the airport was vibrant yesterday morning to welcome its first batch of visitors.

Mrs Hassan also noted that as of today all outlets at the airport will be opened except for Seybar and the Payanke Lounge.

Following the first arrivals in the morning, a second batch of 91 tourists arrived in the country late in the afternoon from Tel Aviv.

For the moment, only South Africa has been placed on the no-entry list due to its high cases of the 501Y.V2 variant which was first reported mid-December last year during its second wave of the pandemic, leading to many infections and deaths.

Over the next couple of months the international airport will welcome flights from Maldives, Moscow, Addis Ababa, among other destinations.

President Wavel Ramkalawan has previously noted that the number of flights expected to come to Seychelles and their provisional bookings are very encouraging.

The hotel groups in the country have noted that they expect to fill their rooms to 70% percent this weekend.

As from next week 28 flights are expected to come in the country.