Airlines Air Seychelles announces business transformation plan

The new plan was made in response to the rapidly increasing competition in the air travel sector. Both shareholders, the Government of the Republic of Seychelles and Etihad Airways have approved the plan.

Jean Weeling-Lee, Chairman of Air Seychelles, stated: “The aviation industry is fiercely competitive and will become even more so in 2018 as some of the largest carriers begin flying to Seychelles. This transformation plan has been designed to restructure the Air Seychelles business to meet the challenges of the future while continuing to deliver strong results for the economy and people of Seychelles.”

Recently, in addition to the airlines already operating to the Seychelles, British Airways has announced to launch services between London and the Seychelles in March 2018. Furthermore, in May and September 2018, Air France and Edelweiss will commence operations to Paris and Zürich.

The new flights create overcapacity on inbound-flights from Europe, which negatively affects Air Seychelles routes to Düsseldorf and Paris. Therefore, the airline was forced to announce the termination of its operations to Düsseldorf in Summer 2017. Furthermore, the Paris route will be closed by April 24, 2018. With ceasing the route to Antananarivo, all international flights are being closed. The leasing contract for the two A330 aircraft will be ended.

Air Seychelles will focus on the domestic and regional market and therefore acquire next generation aircraft to replace the ageing A320 aircraft. This should reduce operational costs for the airline.