Air Seychelles has finally confirmed that it will be suspending all services to Europe during the first quarter of 2012, as first reported by The HUB in November (see ‘Air Seychelles Ends European Flights’) and confirmed it is seeking short-haul equipment for its revised network strategy, as exclusively revealed in September 2011 (see ‘New Brand and New Aircraft for Air Seychelles’).
The Indian Ocean airline will suspend its routes to London, Milan and Rome from January 9, 2012 and although it had initially planned to continue some flights to Paris CDG over the subsequent weeks, these have also now been cancelled. Air Seychelles first launched flights to London in October 1983 using a leased British Caledonian Airways Douglas DC-10, while services to Rome started in March 1993 and Paris in December 1996.
“Passenger bookings to the three European destinations have continue to drop significantly after January 9, 2012 and we have had to take a commercial decision to cease operations to these three European destinations as current bookings would not by any means even pay for variable, out of pocket costs,” said Bram Steller, Chief Executive Officer, Air Seychelles.
The airline is looking to maintain a presence in the long-haul market through codeshare partnerships with international partners and it is currently in discussions for Etihad Airways to “use an Air Seychelles aircraft” on the Mahe - Abu Dhabi - Mahe route to link with its wider international operations to and from Asia, Australasia and Europe. Links to Paris CDG will be established by Air Austral in March 2012, while Blue Panorama Airlines is expected to launch a weekly service to both Milan and Rome from February 2012.
Air Seychelles will be restructured as a regional airline and from the start of the year will be operating international flights to Mauritius and Johannesburg only. These destinations will initially be served using a B767-300 but the airline is discussing the return of its widebodied aircraft and the acquisition of either a Boeing 737-800 or Airbus 320. The selected short-haul model will then form the backbone of an expansion in India, East Africa and the Indian Ocean.
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