Air Seychellyes, CEO, Sandy Benoiton at the CAPA World Aviation Summit 2023

Transcript

Sandy Benoiton:So Air Seychelles, as you may know, went through administration in 2021, and last year we came out of administration successfully. And with the transformation, we made a profit, and this year as well. Looks like we're going to continue on the profitability and sustainability path. So we managed to diversify the business. We're also flying into the— we tap into the ACMI world while also flying our commercial network. We have We have what we call the Creole spirit in Seychelles. So basically it's a service that our cabin crew gives, the attention to details and to the passengers, that one-on-one interaction. I think this is definitely what sets us apart. We definitely have the Creole spirit to share on board. So the result of the transformation was that we stopped long-haul flying. So we are now more of a regional airline with 7 aircraft, 2 A320neos and 5 Twin Otters for the domestic operation. In the future, we are looking into expanding with the XLRs, and this would definitely be the next aircraft for us, which we feel that will give us more range and put us back onto the long-haul flying, or medium-haul flying. We were one of the airlines who kept flying. We really never stopped in a way. Like I said, diversify the market. We found that because of doing that very early on with the country not really closing down, we were able to tap into the recovery much earlier than most, most did. With all the airlines pulling out of Seychelles during that time, we were able to capitalize on that market and we diversified in terms of passengers. Initially, the main markets were from Europe. We tapped into other markets such as— we already started Tel Aviv prior to the pandemic, but we managed to capitalize the Tel Aviv market particularly well for Seychelles. We actually helped the industry recover. The biggest challenge Still remains for us the engines, the engines availability, the supply, the issues. While we didn't— we were very lucky not to choose Pratt Whitney, but still there are issues with the current LEAP engine also. So this is one of our biggest issues, availability of spare engines and the MROs. Yeah, that's really the main one. And then future availability of the XLRs and if they actually deliver on the promises they're making. So obviously the sustainability effect for us is very important. And as you know, Seychelles is quite a small island state with only 100,000 nationals. So for us aspiring to make sure that this legacy is— well, the airline stays, because at one point in time it was— the decision was either to close it down or to keep it going. So with the transformation, very hard, obviously, transformation, we now find that for me, I'm actually very happy that for the second year running now, we are going to make a profit and it looks like it will be sustainable. And you're looking forward to the future? enable in the future. So obviously grow it, but grow it with care and diligence. Thank you.

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