(Posted 29th December 2022)
Air Seychelles has operated the first flight to the Kazakhstan capital of Almaty just after the Christmas holidays.
The Airbus A320Neo carried 137 passengers and took just over 10 hours to reach Mahe, including a fuel stop in Abu Dhabi. The inaugural flight was greeted at the international airport with the traditional water cannon salute.
Local tourism sources attributed the fact that the aircraft was not sold out to the lack of availability of rooms in well known and branded hotels, as the island was literally sold out over the Christmas / New Year period but as of early January 2023 the flight is expected to arrive with a full passenger load. Efforts are also underway to sell smaller hotels and guest houses in Kazakhstan, where room capacity exists across the Seychelles’ main islands.
The twice weekly flight will operate during the high season and is scheduled to end on 27th of March 2023.
Apart from Almaty does Air Seychelles presently also serve Johannesburg, Mauritius, Mumbai and the Maldives.
Meanwhile has it also been learned that the moratorium for new hotels on La Digue island, which has been in place since 2021, has been extended by at least another year to December 2023. Reasons cited to ATCNews were among others the infrastructure challenges which new hotels would pose for the supply of fresh water, waste management and electricity on the Seychelles’ third largest island.
Following the fallout of the pandemic and the impact of the Russian war of aggression on the Ukraine has Seychelles as a destination started to recover again and will no doubt pay special attention to the issue of overall carrying capacity for visitors to the islands.
