Kahini Chakraborty – Mumbai
Seeing a strong growth potential in the India market, Air Seychelles is working with the tourism board of the island to increase tourist footfalls into the destination. In April 2015, the airline increased the number of flights from three to four per week from Mumbai to Seychelles. To further boost connections, the airline, in May 2015 signed a codeshare agreement with Jet Airways. This codeshare provides access to nine cities in India – Delhi, Chennai, Kolkata, Hyderabad, Bengaluru, Jaipur, Ahmedabad, Kochi and Trivandrum. When asked about the airline’s expansion strategy, Roy Kinnear, chief executive officer, Air Seychelles said, “We have the government approvals to launch daily flights to Mumbai. We started with three flights and have expanded to four services. I think it is fair that we first demonstrate how fast we can grow in the Mumbai market before we look at entering into another metropolis.”
Kinnear was a part of the delegation visiting Mumbai to reinforce Indo-Seychelles bilateral relations and the need to pave the way for greater partnerships to promote tourism between both countries. The delegation comprised of the President of Republic of Seychelles HE James Michel along with Alain St Ange, minister for tourism and culture; Joel Morgan, minister for foreign affairs and transport, and Lubaina Sheerazi, COO, Blue Square Consultants for Seychelles Tourism Board Office in India. In the press conference it was highlighted that India represents a dominant player in the Seychelles tourism industry with recorded growth of Indian tourists by 125 per cent between January-July 2015 compared to the same period last year.