Flying Finn jets in |15 January 2005

Listed in the Guinness Book of Records as the holder of the record for the highest number of airmiles flown by a passenger, Mr Finn was making his first stop in Seychelles since 1999.

And, when he took his Air Seychelles flight to Paris on Thursday January 13 morning, Mr Finn said that he would be crossing the 20 million kilometres mark.

Despite the five year hiatus since his last trip to Seychelles Mr Finn estimated that he has already visited the country around 100 times, since his first visit in 1979.

"I've always been interested in promoting Seychelles, (through television and magazines). Basically I think it hasn't changed a lot, which is what makes it so unique," said Mr Finn, on Wednesday afternoon at the Coral Strand.
Having ended the five year dry spell the seasoned traveller is set to be a regular visitor to our shores once again and is expected back in three to four weeks.

Mr Finn, who works as a consultant to various bodies in the travel industry, such as hotels and airlines, said that he is happy to see the changes that have been made recently to Seychelles' tourism base.

"I'm very pleased to see a lot of movement in terms of tourism, regarding new hotels, recognised world-wide and I'm very interested in that."

Mr Finn's globe trotting days started in 1958, when, working in the technology transfer business, he flew from the UK to the USA and back, every week for four years.

"I started on the transfer of technology which kept me travelling for 11 months of the year for nearly 20 years, then people started asking me for my views on flying, and it took over," said Mr Finn.

In addition to holding the record for airmiles travelled, Mr Finn is also credited with having made the highest number of journeys on Concorde, an unbeatable figure following the decommissioning of the supersonic jet, of 718.