AIR SEYCHELLES EXPANDS ITS REACH INTO INDIA
(Posted 17th June 2015)
The launch of nonstop flights from Mahe to Mumbai in early December last year has seen a significant rise in traffic to and from India, both for destination Seychelles and beyond into the expanded Air Seychelles’ network like Dar es Salaam, Antananarivo and Mauritius. In fact tourist arrivals from India to the Seychelles have over the first few months of this year risen from 1.140 to 2.706, no doubt a harbinger of things to come as trade and tourism ties between the two countries continue to grow.
An expanded codeshare agreement announced yesterday between Air Seychelles and India’s Jet Airways, also an airline closely linked to Etihad, will further boost traffic as Air Seychelles passengers as five more Indian cities, Bangalore, Chennai, Delhi, Hyderabad and Kolkata are now part of the new deal signed between Jet’s Cramer Ball and Air Seychelles’ Manoj Papa.
Only six weeks ago was the first codeshare agreement inked which saw four major Indian cities come online for Air Seychelles, Ahmedabad, Jaipur, Kochi and Thiruvananthapuram.
With now nine Indian cities connected, via Mumbai, with Mahe, is Jet Airways also in turn now able to offer connections from those ports of origin into the Air Seychelles network, subject to regulatory approvals.
Both airlines are equity partners of Etihad, which holds a 40 percent share in Air Seychelles and a 24 percent share in Jet Airways allowing synergy benefits for ‘Etihad family members’ to work to the advantage of them all.
