LONGER DISTANCES – HIGHER PAYLOAD – BETTER EONOMICS AS FIRST OF TWO A320NEO AIRCRAFT EXPECTED ON MAHE IN JUNE
(Posted 07th April 2019)
Air Seychelles’ CEO Remco Althuis, when speaking with ATCNews last Friday, confirmed that their first Airbus A320NEO – expected to arrive in July 2019 – will be joined in March next year by a second such aircraft.
Explaining the upside of this state of the art medium haul jet joining the Air Seychelles fleet – where it will replace a classic version of the A320 – did he underscore the plane’s ability to fly longer distances and carry a higher payload with reduced fuel burn. The latter will come in handy during times of rising fuel prices while the former too will sharply improve the flight economics.
The current version requires an additional 5 ton fuel payload to safely reach an alternate airport – hundreds of miles away – should for any reason such as bad weather landing on Mahe not be possible – while the NEO version of the A320 no longer requires that additional measure.
Said Remco: ‘We can increase the number of seats sold on routes like Johannesburg and / or take higher payloads of cargo on board‘ as he confirmed that from the summer schedule onwards the airline will fly daily, up from presently six fligths a week, to South Africa’s commercial capital.
Madagascar will also return to the schedule with two flights a week, Mauritius will be served 5 times a week and flights to Mumbai will also be upped by one to six a week.
While Remco would not confirm what additional new destinations the airline is eyeing right now – after all will from the summer schedule onwards flights to Abu Dhabi be suspended and the airline is keen to use the additional aircraft time available – did he point into the general direction, north of the Seychelles.
It also transpired during the interview that some key functions, previously outsourced to Abu Dhabi, will return to the airline’s base on Mahe, such as crew training other then simulator sessions for pilots as well as elements of planning, crew rostering and related functions, which will no doubt be good news for the Seychelles’ public which last year had a hard time to absorb the downsizing of the airline’s staff when their long haul fleet of two A330’s came into effect.
https://atcnews.org/2019/04/01/mid-year-delivery-for-airseychelles-first-airbus-a320neo/
Also on site was VoyagesAfriq’s Kojo Bentum Williams who conducted a short video interview with Remco which will be published over the coming days and which link will also appear on ATCNew’s regular social media platforms.
