Condor is back |04 October 2021

Seychelles now has a direct link to one of its most performing traditional markets, Germany, as Condor resumes its non-stop flights from Frankfurt to the islands.

Following a pandemic-induced hiatus, the Condor touched down at the Seychelles International Airport on Saturday morning, at around 6.20am.

The Boeing 767/300 carrying 164 passengers was welcomed with a water canon salute on its arrival.

The passengers received a warm Creole welcome from the department of Tourism and were entertained with live traditional music.

Present for the arrival of the aircraft and to greet the 164 passengers as they disembarked was the department of Tourism’s director general for Destination Marketing, Bernadette Willemin.

Mrs Willemin noted that Condor joins 12 other airlines contributing to the recovering of the tourism industry and linking Seychelles to other parts of the world.

Condor in particular links Seychelles directly to Germany, one of its main markets in Western Europe.

Mrs Willemin explained that although Seychelles has been exploring other markets, such as Eastern Europe, Germany has always remained a consistent market for Seychelles, bar for the pandemic.

“With the resumption of its services, Condor joins 12 other airlines. It definitely gives us great pleasure to see another airline partner back on our shores. A direct flight from a European city is always an added value for the destination. This is a great step in our recovery especially as the German market is one of the best performing source markets for Seychelles. The resumption of the flights comes at a right time as well as the German government eases travel requirements for German nationals and residents travelling to Seychelles,” Mrs Willemin said.

Our efforts are now concentrated on getting back our visitors from Germany and neighbouring countries. With the arrival of Condor, we are eagerly anticipating a boost in visitor arrival numbers,” she added.

On his part the CEO of Condor, Ralf Teckentrup, expressed his confidence in Seychelles as a destination.

“The Seychelles in the Indian Ocean belongs to the Condor flight schedule and is a popular destination with our guests. The archipelago delights with unique beaches, coral reefs and rainforests and we are very much looking forward to flying our guests on holiday after such a long period of wanderlust. We have been working very successfully with Tourism Seychelles for a long time to enable our guests to enjoy their dream holiday,” stated Mr Teckentrup.

Germany was the leading source market for Seychelles in 2019, when the destination recorded 72,509 visitor arrivals from Germany, almost a quarter of whom travelled on Condor.

Comparatively, in the first nine months of 2021, Seychelles has recorded a total of 8,080 visitors from Germany.

The accompanying photographs show some highlights of the arrival of Condor at the Seychelles International Airport on Saturday.

Elsie Pointe