Air Seychelles drops Singapore, looks at other Far East routes
Air Seychelles has announced that it will be suspending its Singapore services as from November 24th, 2011. Simultaneously it will be identifying new routes to the Far East in co-operation with other airlines.
The withdrawal from Singapore on the national airline’s regional network is mainly due to heavy losses in revenue based on operating costs, low uptake of seats and cargo space. This has come about due to increased competition from other carriers offering multiple shopping destinations such as Dubai, Singapore, Bangkok, Kuala Lumpur and Guangzhou, while tourism arrivals from Singapore have been very low.
Air Seychelles CEO Bram Steller said : “ Our new business strategy focuses on maximizing revenue by ensuring we have the appropriate capacity on all routes and flights and that we are making adequate use of our fleet ”.
He explained that forecasted figures on the weekly Singapore flights showed a low revenue in both passenger and cargo load and operating costs were high thus resulting in significant losses .
Air Seychelles launched its Singapore operations in July 1989 but temporarily suspended its services in April 2005 for three months due to a SARS epidemic.
During a visit to China as a member of the Presidential delegation, Minister Joel Morgan and representatives from the Department of Transport, the SCAA, Air Seychelles and STB met with Chinese tourism and aviation officials and with four airlines to discuss possibilities of Chinese airlines flying to Seychelles in collaboration with our national airline and opening up our islands as a holiday destination to Chinese nationals.
Air Seychelles and the Seychelles Tourist Board (STB) are pursuing this proposal which could also lead into the possibility of Chinese airlines flying passengers to Seychelles.
The last Air Seychelles flight to Singapore will depart Seychelles on 22nd November 2011 and returns on November 24th 2011.
Loading ...