AIR SEYCHELLES ‘SURPRISES’ UGANDAN MARKET WITH CODESHARE FLIGHT VIA ABU DHABI
(Posted 08th September 2015)
The announcement by Air Seychelles that the airline had signed a codeshare deal with partner Etihad to connect Mahe with Entebbe, via Abu Dhabi, went down like a lead balloon with several travel agents polled by this correspondent.
Mr. Roy Kinnear, Air Seychelles’ Chief Executive Officer, when making the announcement, said: ‘We are pleased to expand our codeshare with Etihad Airways to include Uganda, which is experiencing a period of impressive economic growth. Backed by strong economic development, Uganda has seen a corresponding and significant rise in the number of leisure travellers, who now have convenient, one-stop access to Seychelles. By working together with Etihad Airways and South African Airways, we have been able to expand our network to nine destinations in Africa, and with this development, look forward to welcoming guests from Uganda onboard our flights’.
Three out of seven travel agents requested for a comment simply responded by a three letter code from the social media scene ‘SMH’, indicating they were merely shaking their heads over the new deal and two others questioned the rationale of the code shared service. One of those wrote: ‘Me I don’t know with whom they consulted, maybe only Etihad, but why would someone want to fly to Mahe via the Gulf? It more than doubles traveling time? I book Ugandans to Seychelles with Ethiopian or Kenya Airways which is direct and saves a lot of time. Anyway, even Etihad must have their agenda because they only manage to fly four times to Entebbe. They had said daily but the traffic is not there because Emirates and Qatar and Fly Dubai are daily and give them hard competition. They would of course look for any straw to cling on to add some extra passengers. This is only good for the two airlines but not for Ugandans who want to visit Seychelles. I wonder what fares they will use to win passengers but it has to be a lot less than what ET charges for their tickets to make this work’.
The other agent, also on condition of not being named, looked at a different aspect when asking: ‘Why don’t they codeshare with Kenya Airways. That way they open up not just Nairobi and Entebbe but the entire East Africa. That would make sense but forcing clients to travel through Abu Dhabi, no, that is not good business sense. Because after all, Etihad already codeshares from Nairobi to Entebbe with KQ, so why this complicated routing?’.
Air Seychelles has made strong headway through code share arrangements with both Etihad and Etihad partners like Air Berlin and Alitalia among others in the European market or with Jet Airways in the Indian market, a move applauded here and taken up by the market with a gusto.
However, the route to Entebbe via Abu Dhabi is not likely to be a game changer in terms of the numbers of Ugandans who want to visit Mahe, Praslin, La Digue and other of the archipelago’s islands considering the detour and extra time required. While the Seychelles as a destination has become ever more popular with Ugandans and other East Africans as a result of extensive marketing the affordability when using smaller locally owned hotels, resorts and B&B’s, travellers from Uganda are likely to stick to the two airlines which offer the shortest routes to Mahe instead of routing via the Gulf.
