AIR SEYCHELLES PONDERS RETENTION OF SOME OF THEIR TWIN OTTERS DHC 6 – 300
(Posted 23rd April 2014)
It was reliably learned overnight, that the increasing success on domestic scheduled services from Mahe to Praslin and back and growing demand for charter services to some of the other islands of the archipelago has made Air Seychelles reconsider plans to dispose of their current fleet of Twin Otter DHC 6-300 series once their new aircraft have been delivered. Passenger numbers have over the past year increased by double digit numbers for both Seychellois flying to Praslin and back as well as for foreign tourists using the scheduled and charter inter island flights.
At least one, perhaps more of the three of the older aircraft on the Air Seychelles domestic fleet, will be refurbished and kept in service, supplementing the four Twin Otter DHC 6-400’s when all of the present 20 million + US Dollar order of 3 brand new aircraft have been delivered later this year.
This latest aircraft type of the former de Havilland company, now manufactured by Viking of Canada, still – at least for casual onlookers – resembles the older version of the Twin Otter, which has become a hugely successful STOL aircraft [short takeoff and landing] and is in use all over Eastern Africa as a prime people mover on the various safari circuits in Kenya, Uganda and Tanzania. The Twin Otter has earned itself a reputation as one of the most reliable twin engine 19 seat aircraft in use. The Dash 400 version incorporates new light weight technologies in material to significantly reduce fuel consumption while using stronger and ‘greener’ engines. A ‘glass cockpit’ where computer screens have replaced the rotary dials of old gives the clearest indication of the changes this aircraft type has undergone since production was relaunched in 2010 and Air Seychelles became one of the launch customers when it took delivery of one of these new aircraft.
Viking, it is understood, will provide enhanced back up vis a vis maintenance and spare supplies for Air Seychelles, as the various mandatory checks – which become due either by cycles, hours flown or time elapsed – will be a regulatory requirement carried out at the airline’s base in Mahe. As a matter of record does the Twin Otter fleet presently operate well over 200 flights a week and nearly 1.000 every month and further growth will require additional aircraft to be available.
Watch this space for breaking and regular aviation news from across the Indian Ocean islands.
