AIR SEYCHELLES DOES THE TRIPLE AT THE WORLD TOURISM AWARDS
(Posted 22nd June 2015)
Air Seychelles scooped three major awards over the weekend at the World Travel Awards for Africa and the Indian Ocean islands, which were incidentally held at the Kempinski Seychelles Resort in Baie Lazare on the main island of Mahe.
The full house event saw Seychelles’ national airline retain their two awards won a year ago, namely ‘Indian Ocean Leading Cabin Crew’ and ‘Indian Ocean Leading Business Class’.
The icing on the cake however was the award which eluded them a year ago and which in 2015 made it a Triple Crown of the awards regularly described as Travel Oscars, being named ‘Indian Ocean Leading Airline’.
The airline’s Chairman of the Board Mr. Joel Morgan, who is also the Minister for Foreign Affairs and Transport, expressed his personal delight when, after the awards were announced, said: ‘On behalf of the Government of Seychelles I congratulate the team for winning three of the highest accolades at the Indian Ocean World Travel Awards and further strengthening the reputation of Air Seychelles as a leading airline.The people of Seychelles can be justifiably proud of Air Seychelles, its growth and achievements and the crucial contribution that it is making every day to the economy of Seychelles through facilitating growth in our tourism and trade.It is fitting that this year the award ceremony was held in Seychelles and that in less than two weeks on 1 July, our flag-carrier will further promote our beautiful archipelago as it commences a three times a week non-stop Paris service’.
Manoj Papa, CEO of Air Seychelles, added his own voice to that of his Chairman, when, after receiving the trophies he said: ‘Winning three World Travel Awards was a proud moment for Air Seychelles and validates that the business model is working and the investment in the airline is sound. By focusing on people, product and partnerships we are overcoming the challenges faced by the airline in the past few years.Being named Indian Ocean’s Leading Airline showed unequivocally that we are putting our guests and our people first. This is a people business and we know that with well trained and supported people, we can deliver the best customer experience.We are innovative in our product development and know the importance of maintaining our quality standards. Partnerships are where we have excelled. Through our codeshare partners and Etihad Airways Partners, we are developing a network with global reach, seamless connections and reciprocal flight benefits. There is no doubt that our improved access through our partnerships to world-class training and operational synergies, is making Air Seychelles a stronger and more competitive airline. These awards come at an exciting time in the journey of Air Seychelles and I am extremely proud of the Air Seychelles’ team which works hard and smart’.
The awards no doubt recognised the changes the airline had undergone over the past year with the addition of new aircraft and the launch of three new destinations but also the increase in frequencies to Mauritius, Antananarivo and Mumbai just months after these new routes were introduced to the market. Nonstop flights between Mahe and Paris CDG are now just over a week away, substituting the route via Abu Dhabi, which due to the stopover was not overly popular with tour operators and passengers. Besides international flights does Air Seychelles operate inter island flights between Mahe and Praslin with as many as 20 daily scheduled departures and charter services to other islands popular with tourists. These services use a fleet of De Havilland Twin Otters including three recently purchased latest state of the art models. Air Seychelles is also set to operate a series of charters from China to Mahe later in the year in an effort to bring more Chinese travellers to the Seychelles on nonstop flights rather than routing them via the hubs in the Gulf. Air Seychelles has been ranked as a four star airline by Skytrax, the world’s arguably most independent rating and ranking system for aviation services.
