Air Seychelles to launch weekly direct flights to Tel Aviv in November 2019 |10 July 2019

Mr Berlouis flanked by Mr Bonnelame (left) and Minister Dogley during the press conference

Air Seychelles has announced a new service linking the Seychelles and Israel’s largest metropolitan area, Tel Aviv starting November 27, 2019.

The new route was announced yesterday in a press conference at the Botanical House with the Minister for Tourism, Civil Aviation, Ports and Marine Didier Dogley and the Chief Financial Officer of Air Seychelles, Michael Berlouis. Also present was board member Cyril Bonnelame who was deputising for the chairman.

The new service will be operated on Wednesday evenings from the Seychelles with the returning flight departing Tel Aviv a week later. The flights have been carefully timed to provide business and leisure traveller’s convenient connections over the Seychelles to Mauritius, Johannesburg and Mumbai.

The six-hour and twenty-minute flight will be operated by the airline’s new airbus A320neo aircraft Veuve, S7-VEV of 12 business class and 156 economy class seats scheduled to be delivered by the end of July. It will feature the new inflight entertainment platform SeyStream that will allow free wireless downloads of movies and TV shows on guests’ personal devices as part of air Seychelles’ efforts to reduce carbon monoxide and protect the environment.

The national airline will also be adding El Al Israel Airlines LTD to its list of interline partners as part of its network expansion to provide onward connections to over 20 destinations across Europe via the Ben Gurion international airport.

Mr Berlouis said that the new direct flight will be a first for the region and no other airlines in the Indian Ocean will be a direct competitor to Air Seychelles.

“The creation of the first ever air corridor between the Seychelles and Tel Aviv will strengthen business, tourism and cultural ties between the two countries in addition to boosting traffic and onward connection to other destinations across our network,” said Mr Berlouis.

He noted that Air Seychelles has taken a very cautious approach by partnering with tour operators in Tel Aviv to secure the majority of seats to be sold from Tel Aviv as one or two package holidays in Seychelles and Mauritius. He added that whatever seats that the tour operators don’t sell will be reimbursed back to Air Seychelles.

“Seychelles is considered a safe destination for Israelis hence the once per week service will enable us to open up the Seychelles market, evaluate and develop the destination further in addition to exploring the possibility of even introducing the second Airbus A320neo on the route if need be as Tel Aviv has GPD per capita,” said Mr Berlouis.

Passengers travelling to Tel Aviv can take advantage of the attractive launch fares already on sale starting from R9,400. The fares will be valid for purchase until July 16, for travel between November 27, 2019 and March 25, 2020.

Minister Dogley added that the new connecting flights to Tel Aviv will help diversify Air Seychelles flights.