Tag Archives: Seychelles

Emirates to bring the Airbus A380 to Copenhagen, double daily to Zurich

Emirates (Dubai) continues to add more Airbus A380 services. The fast-growing carrier has announced a second daily Airbus A380 service to Zurich.

Commencing on Thursday October 1, 2015, Emirates flights EK 85/86, currently operated by a Boeing 777-300 ER, will be upgraded to an A380. The first A380 was introduced on the route in January 2014.

Emirates flight EK 85 departs Dubai International Airport at 15.45 and arrives in Zurich at 20:20. The outbound flight EK 86 departs from Zurich at 22:15 and arrives in Dubai at 06:25 the following day.

Emirates also announced the launch of a daily Airbus A380 service to Copenhagen. As of December 1, 2015, the Danish capital will be the first in Scandinavia to boast a scheduled A380 service.

Emirates flight EK 151 will leave Dubai at 0820 and arrive in Copenhagen at 1220 the same day. The return flight EK 152 will depart Copenhagen at 1420 and arrive in Dubai at 2335 the same day.

Emirates is also adding a second daily A380 flight on the Dubai – London Gatwick route with the introduction of second daily A380 service on permanent basis.

In other news, Emirates will increase its capacity to the Indian Ocean Island of Seychelles, when it switches from the current Airbus A330-200 used on one of the two daily services to a larger Boeing 777-300 ER from June 1, 2015.

The introduction of the Emirates Boeing 777-300 ER, which operates as flight EK 705 from Dubai and as EK 706 on the return flight, will increase overall capacity on the route by 1722 seats per week and will make the route an all-Boeing 777 operation.

On the cargo side, Emirates SkyCargo, the freight division of Emirates, will soon be adding the Indonesian Island of Bali to its Asia Pacific network, opening up a new trade lane between the island and the cargo carrier’s network of more than 140 destinations.

Bali will become Emirates SkyCargo’ s 2nd gateway in Indonesia and 24th Asia Pacific point in its global network.

With the launch of its daily service to Bali, Emirates SkyCargo will offer 294 tons of cargo capacity per week both ways in the belly hold of a Boeing 777-300 ER which will be used on the route. The new Bali service will bring to four the number of daily flights Emirates SkyCargo has to Indonesia – three of which are to the country’s capital Jakarta.

Emirates aircraft slide show:

Air Seychelles to resume services to Paris on July 2

Air Seychelles (Mahe) has announced it will resume flights to Paris (CDG) on July 2, 2014.

The flag carrier will operate two weekly roundtrips from the Seychelles to Paris via Abu Dhabi, with Air Seychelles deploying its brightly-colored Airbus A330-200 aircraft (above) on the route, offering 18 lie-flat seats in Business Class and 236 seats in Economy Class.

Partner Etihad Airways (Abu Dhabi) will also place its EY code on the flights.

Copyright Photo: Rainer Bexten/AirlinersGallery.com. Leased from Etihad Airways, Airbus A330-243 A6-EYY (msn 751) completes its final approach into Johannesburg (JNB).

Air Seychelles:

Air Seychelles has a second profitable year in a row, upgrades its Twin Otter fleet

Air Seychelles (Mahe) has announced a net profit of $3 million (US) for 2013, exceeding by 171 percent its profit of $1.1 million (US) reported in 2012.

Revenue increased by 107 percent to $88.7 million (2012: $42.8 million).

The airline’s passenger numbers on its international network increased 100 percent to 195,857 (2012: 97,576), while traffic on domestic services in 2013 increased nine percent to 156,617 passengers.

The impressive 2013 passenger traffic growth was aided by Air Seychelles’ acquisition of a second Airbus A330-200 aircraft in March. The same month the island carrier launched three weekly flights to Hong Kong, and increased frequencies to Abu Dhabi, Johannesburg and Mauritius, bringing its total international weekly services to 16, up 100 percent.

Johannesburg and Mauritius enjoyed an additional return service per week, connecting each destination three times a week respectively with the Seychelles. The airline’s Abu Dhabi services also increased from four to seven return flights per week.

Abu Dhabi was Air Seychelles’ busiest international route, with a total of 90,746 passengers carried between the archipelago and capital of the United Arab Emirates, a year-on-year increase of 178 percent.

Elsewhere, Air Seychelles saw record cargo volumes in 2013 thanks strong demand to and from France, Italy, Hong Kong and South Africa.

Air Seychelles signed four new codeshare partnerships in 2013, entering agreements with airberlin, Czech Airlines, South African Airways, and Cathay Pacific Airways. These codeshare agreements increased Air Seychelles’ virtual network from 19 to 34 destinations.

In October, Air Seychelles announced a multi-million dollar agreement for the purchase of three new Viking Air DHC-6 Twin Otter Series 400 aircraft (top and below), its largest ever domestic fleet order signalling the carrier’s long-term commitment to its domestic operations. Two of these aircraft are due to arrive in mid-2014, one year ahead of schedule.

Air Seychelles now plans to welcome the new Twin Otters in July, following which, the aircraft will enter into service between Mahé and Praslin, as well as other islands in the archipelago, including Bird, Denis, D’Arros, and Frégate.

The third Twin Otter aircraft is expected to arrive in the third quarter of 2015. All three new aircraft are part of a phased business plan to refresh the Twin Otter DHC-6 fleet.

Twin Otters were first introduced by Air Seychelles in the early 1980s and the airline currently operates three DHC-6 Series 300 aircraft and 1 DHC-6 Series 400 aircraft.

The 19-seat twin engine Pratt & Whitney PT6A-34 aircraft are manufactured by Viking Air in British Columbia, Canada.

Air Seychelles capped a remarkable year of achievements by being awarded a four-star rating by Skytrax, one of 35 global carriers to hold this accolade.

Both Copyright Photos: Air Seychelles is upgrading its Twin Otter inter-island fleet. Top: S7-CUR (msn 846) is the first DHC-6-400 Twin Otter with a digital glass cockpit. Viking Air President and CEO, David C. Curtis, the Seychelles Minister of Home Affairs and Transport and Chairman of Air Seychelles, Joel Morgan, and Air Seychelles Chief Executive Officer, Cramer Ball, outline details of the new Twin Otter fleet order at a press conference.

Air Seychelles:

Video: Air Seychelles DHC-6-300 Twin Otter landing at Praslin Island Airport (PRI) coming from Seychelles International Airport (SEZ).

Air Seychelles launches Shorts 360 cargo service in the Seychelles

Air Seychelles (Mahe) on April 2 announced the launch of a once per week all-cargo service between the two largest islands of Seychelles on its Shorts 360 aircraft.

The cargo service will target perishable commodities destined for hotels and other tourism establishments on Praslin, offering seamless connections to Air Seychelles flights from Johannesburg and Abu Dhabi.

All shipments destined to Praslin will be customs cleared in Mahe. Consignee trucks on Praslin will be given access to the airport ramp to facilitate off-loading on to the trucks for quick and seamless distribution to customers.

The Shorts 360 aircraft has been retrofitted to operate as a cargo aircraft, and can now carry up to 3500 kilograms of cargo with a volumetric capacity of 1309 cubic feet.

The inaugural Shorts 360 freighter flight flew with 73 pieces, 730 kilograms of perishable cargo on Monday, March 31, arriving on Praslin fresh and cool.

The cargo flights will operate under the flight number HM 3300 departing Mahe at 09:00 every Monday to arrive at Praslin at 09:15. Flight HM 3301 will return as a scheduled flight departing from Praslin at 10:15.

Air Seychelles:

Current Route Map:

Air Seychelles orders three Viking Air DHC-6-400s

Air Seychelles Purchase 3

Air Seychelles (Mahé) has announced the purchase of three Viking Air DHC-6 Twin Otter Series 400 aircraft, in a deal which will see the island carrier renew its domestic fleet. The new aircraft will be used for services between Mahé and Praslin, as well as other islands in the archipelago, including Bird, Denis and Frégate.

All three aircraft deliveries are scheduled for mid-2015, with an option for earlier delivery if aircraft become available.The airline currently operates one DHC-6 Twin Otter Series 400 and three Series 300 aircraft.

Copyright Photo: Viking Air. Air Seychelles’ first Twin Otter Series 400, and the second Viking production aircraft, msn 846, waits on Viking ramp prior to customer delivery.

Air Seychelles: