ROLLOUT INTO AFRICA CONTINUES UNABATED AS TURKISH AIRLINES SHAKES OFF AFTERMATH OF COUP ATTEMPT
(Posted 12th August 2016)
Representatives of Turkish Airlines are in the Seychelles holding meetings with relevant authorities ahead of the start of their new service to the islands at the end of September this year. Fatih Mehmet Kursun, their General Manager for Mauritius, Madagascar and now Seychelles accompanied by Dr. Taner Erim, the Manager International Relations and Agreements for Middle East and Africa and Yakup Gozubuyuk, their expert for International Relations and Agreements for Middle East and Africa paid a courtesy call on Minister Alain St.Ange, the Seychelles Minister responsible for Tourism and Culture at the Ministry’s ESPACE Offices in Victoria.
Discussions that centered on the arrival date of the airline’s first flight to Seychelles at the end of September was also the opportunity for Turkish Airline to review their target source markets for Seychelles as well as conditions presented to them for their operation in Seychelles. Present also at the meeting was Sherin Naiken, the CEO of the Seychelles Tourism Board who confirmed to the Turkish Airline delegation that their marketing and sales people were already actively working with the Tourism Board in countries identified as target markets for Seychelles.
Turkish Airlines are launching their Seychelles service with three flights and are hoping to increase the number of flights to the islands in the near future. ‘We are happy to see the arrival of Turkish Airline to our shores. We are a mid-ocean tourism destination that remains dependent of adequate air access to make our tourism industry work‘ Minister St.Ange said as he was presented with a replica model of the plane that will be on the Seychelles route from the end of September this year.
Turkish Airlines, already the international carrier with the most destinations in Africa, intends to fly to 50 cities on the continent and the African Indian Ocean islands by the end of the year but has its eyes on yet more countries to connect through Istanbul to the world’s largest international network of all major airlines.
The airline already serves two other Indian Ocean Vanilla Islands, namely Mauritius and Madagascar.
In East Africa does Turkish connect Istanbul with Entebbe, Kigali, Nairobi, Mombasa but also Dar es Salaam and Kilimanjaro and South Sudan’s capital Juba. In the wider region does Turkish serve Addis Ababa, Asmara, Djibouti and notably Mogadishu.
