Air Seychelles handles over 1 million passengers in 2019 |10 February 2020

A guest service agent checking in a guest at the airport (Photo source: Air Seychelles)

• Overall 5% growth in arrivals and departures

Air Seychelles has announced that the national airline has recorded an extremely strong performance in its ground handling business in 2019.

The positive result driven by the increase in the frequency of flights to the Seychelles including arrival of new customer airlines have also been supported by a number of ad hoc private charters operating at the Seychelles International Airport.

Between January and December 2019, the ground handling department handled 475,029 incoming and 533,686 outgoing passengers amounting to 1,008,715 passengers in total compared to 927,856 passengers in 2018.

The 5% growth which includes a total of 80,859 more passengers handled in 2019 also comprises 34,113 transiting passengers accessing the Seychelles hub, connecting with other carriers to their final destinations.

Combining both inbound and outbound travel including the domestic network, Air Seychelles alone contributed a total of 414,088 passengers having operated 1,983 flights across its regional network.

Vania Larue, head of ground services, said: “2019 was one of the busiest period for the Seychelles ground handling team, following the increasing number of arrivals and departures at the Seychelles International Airport. To manage the high volume of passengers, last year, we reviewed the entire ground handling procedures, implemented new work schedules for our staff members in addition to making considerable investment in our ground support equipment.”

She noted that this has enabled us to increase efficiency throughout our service to better meet the needs of the customers including the service level agreements with all the airlines handled by Air Seychelles.

“Having surpassed the 1 million passenger threshold is indeed a great achievement. I proudly extend my congratulations to the ground handling team for keeping up the great team spirit and for delivering the highest performance in 2019,” Ms Larue said.

Contributed by Air Seychelles