Air Seychelles looks at second year of profitability in a row

AIR SEYCHELLES RECORDS MASSIVE PASSENGER INCREASE

(Posted 09th November 2013)

The third quarter of the current financial year has produced a year on year increase of passengers carried of 91 percent, in real terms from the 2012 figures of 28.847 to 55.238 in 2013.

The airline’s CEO Cramer Ball attributed this massive improvement in his own words to: ‘the solid performance across our entire network in Q3 with solid growth in all our key markets and a strong and accelerating contribution from our codeshare partners. With our continuing focus on containing costs, we are confident we will deliver a strong financial return to our shareholders and to our home economy’.

In its highest quarterly performance on the Mauritius route in three years, the airline carried 9,041 passengers, up 38.5 per cent from a year ago (2012: 6,525). Traffic was boosted by extra flights in August in response to local demand during school holidays. Air Seychelles currently operates three times a week to Mauritius with a two-cabin Airbus A320 aircraft wet-leased from Etihad Airways, with 16 seats in Business Class and 120 seats in Economy Class.

Passengers have more than doubled on the airline’s Abu Dhabi route in Q3 to 22,694, up from 9,187 a year ago. Seat factor on the Abu Dhabi route rose by 13.3% to 63.7%, despite a 67.7% increase in Available Seat Kilometres (ASKs), from 89.3 million to 149.8 million.

Traffic on the airline’s services to Hong Kong saw a quarter-to-quarter increase of 21.6 per cent, up 2,451 to 13,788 (Q2 2013: 11,337), a reflection of the increasing popularity of the connections to Seychelles and to Hong Kong offered by the airline’s schedule over the Abu Dhabi hub.

Traffic on the Johannesburg route saw 11.8 per cent year-on-year growth with a 342 per cent quarter-to-quarter growth in revenue contribution from South African Airways.

Cargo also performed well during Q3, with a 190 per cent year-on-year growth in tonnage (from 561,945 to 1,631,965 tonnes).

On the airline’s domestic operations, the airline saw a 19.3 per cent increase in the number of flights in Q3 to points in the archipelago to 3,893, up from 3,263 a year ago. Passenger numbers on the Praslin route increased by 6.9 per cent to 44,708 (Q3 2012: 41,820). Only last week did Air Seychelles order 3 brand new DHC6-400 aircraft to replace the aged DHC6-300 types presently used.

Mr. Joel Morgan, Seychelles’ Minister for Home Affairs and Transport, and Chairman of Air Seychelles, said when commenting on this performance: ‘It is a pleasure to see these results which show that we are solidly on track for a second year of profitability, confirming that our business plan was soundly constructed. With continued focus, it is certain that Air Seychelles will continue to deliver strongly. Considering our convenient schedule and connections, we offer a powerful proposition to the traveling public, which will continue to contribute to the record number of tourists visiting our islands’.