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So it is not the time to turn our small but fragile Air Seychelles, one of our success stories, into a political football just because it has gone to the government for some money.

Often in this column there have been reports of big companies overseas, including airlines, banks, mortgage lenders and car makers getting into financial difficulties because of the worldwide economic recession.

Soon after Barack Obama became President of the United States, his first task was to seek billions of dollars of taxpayers’ money to help companies overcome the hardships of recession. In the US the companies were private. Air Seychelles is state-owned, all the more reason why it should go to the government for money for investment.

Just because Air Seychelles has gone to its owner to ask for R30 million in financial help does not justify a negative media campaign that jeopardises the job security of 800 Seychellois. The government had prepared for the eventuality of the financial request. 
Regar, the mouthpiece of the Seychelles National Party, launched in its November 6 edition what is clearly a vindictive attack against those in the top management of Air Seychelles.

Words such as crash, bailout, rapid deterioration, financial turbulence and quagmire were used with great exaggeration to hit at the small airline. Fortunately, Air Seychelles is not listed on a stock exchange or shareholders would have seen the value of their investments drop or crash as a result of the Regar article.

Party politics and business don’t mix

The Regar hit-the-airline-where-it-hurts-most campaign has backfired as the article is causing a lot of anxiety. The bad publicity directed at Air Seychelles, the workhorse in the transport sector of our tourism industry, has had repercussions everywhere in the world.

A statement from Air Seychelles said: “Regar and the leader of opposition stated that they support the airline, but in the same breath said the airline is in a financial crash. It has sent fear among a large number of the population.

“It has deliberately scared the travelling public out of buying tickets from an airline said to be crashing. The many visitors whose mother tongue is not English, who are here on holiday and have travelled on Air Seychelles, are alarmed to see the headlines in Regar.”

The bad publicity in the opposition media against Air Seychelles’ management and staff is a vendetta. From reaction gathered at Air Seychelles, the latest harassment by Regar and the SNP has rebounded on the opposition.

The national airline was inundated with calls from various quarters, among them travel agents overseas who wanted to know about future bookings. Passengers also queried their return flights. There was anxiety everywhere caused by the Regar report, and Air Seychelles staff asked for a petition to be organised. 

The article was alarmist. The use of the word “crash” in the headline of a front-page article about a small national airline that carries 60% of visitors to Seychelles is in bad taste, unpatriotic and unfair.

An airline the size of Air Seychelles that is operated efficiently by a nation of less than 90,000 people and is facing tough competition does not deserve such bad treatment just because it applied for financial help from the government. Only this week major carrier British Airways announced redundancies after heavy financial losses.

Regar chose not to mention, as a fact, that Air Seychelles has managed to make a profit in eight of the last 11 years. It also did not say that losses in the last two financial years were caused by damage to one of the aircraft in Paris and also the record prices of fuel.
 
Before Air Seychelles started making a profit in 1998, the government had been pouring millions of dollars into its operations since 1983.

Ironically, one of the Regar articles said: “We in the SNP believe that the national airline must be saved.”

But when the supplementary budget proposal was put before the National Assembly on Tuesday, that party did not vote for the R30 million for the airline. Putting up their hands in front of the camera in favour was the most visible way of confirming to the staff that the opposition really supports Air Seychelles in this time of world recession.

The opposition attack against the airline was too personal. But it is the airline that suffers. Regar did not write that Air Seychelles is putting up a new building at the airport, for example, and bringing in a new inter-island plane – both  requiring “capitalisation” –  but the politicians went on and on about the airline’s failure to have its own office space.

However, the International Monetary Fund’s strategic review of the airline’s operations is eagerly awaited. We continue to learn new lessons in economy and management.

Maybe it is not a bad thing for Regar to make Air Seychelles staff fear for their livelihood. The words used in the article about the review were: “This will decide whether it will be privatised, sold or liquidated.”

Such words should cause the management and staff to wake up. Why spend R30 million on the airline and the staff when the country is coping with a macro-economic reform programme?

Meanwhile, it will be good that the management and staff of the airline realise that every cent saved, every bottle of wine not stolen, every kilo of excess luggage paid for may contribute to Air Seychelles’ continued success.

There are other issues that need to be addressed, although these do not necessitate sowing panic among staff and the travelling public.

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Crude oil prices

As at 12/11/09

Nymex Crude Future 79.40 dollars per barrel
Dated Brent Spot       77.91 dollars per barrel