Ireney Ernest clocks 42 years of dedicated service in the airline industry |19 March 2022

Ireney with acting CEO during the farewell event

• Wearing the Air Seychelles’ uniform with pride and getting job satisfaction

At the end of January this year, Ireney Ernest hanged up her wings after clocking an impressive 42 years of service within the local aviation industry, precisely with national airline Air Seychelles.

Over the years, Mrs Ernest has progressed and moved up the ranks, taking various responsibilities, including supervisory and managerial posts.

Upon her retirement, she was the airline’s compliance and safety manager, while simultaneously being in charge of emergency responses.

Mrs Ernest debuted her long aviation career in April 1980 as a checking agent where her responsibilities at that time included checking passengers in, weighing and checking in baggage, issuing boarding passes and luggage labels, allocating seat numbers, and also answering passenger queries prior to their flight.

She was later promoted to become a supervisor within the department, before venturing into department, including ramp where she was responsible for supervising and controlling flight-handling activities such as flight editing, transfer and boarding in order to achieve a high standard of service.

Mrs Ernest then became duty officer in 1995, before being promoted again, this time to ground operations manager where she dealt with the airport handling procedures ensuring passengers, cargo mail, etc are safely on board the aircraft prior to departure, and also ensuring that cargo shipments are handled and stored according to Standard Operating Procedures (SOPs) and handling requirements, while ensuring that shipments are arranged according to cargo plans.

In 2010, until her retirement, Mrs Ernest assumed the role of compliance and safety manager where she was responsible to implement and coordinate safety and environmental programmes and ensure compliance with required regulations, procedures and policies with primary focus on aviation.

Her mandate was to also facilitate identification of safety and environmental risks and promote reduction or elimination of potential accidents, occupational injuries, illnesses, deaths and safety-related financial losses, while conducting safety assistance visits and training to ensure implementation of and compliance with safety directives.

Mrs Ernest explained that compared to her early days in the industry, the field of aviation has evolved massively, with all the crucial elements being computerised, compared the earlier manual routines.

Something which she said is normal, since the aviation world is not static, while Air Seychelles as a small airline had to constantly evolve to adapt to the newest trends of the industry.

In terms of staff motivation and commitment, Mrs Ernest said over the years, there have been drastic changes in the behaviour and attitude of a few, while most of them are still flying the Creole spirit.

She explained that she always wore her uniform with pride, offering the good service, while always getting job satisfaction.

Mrs Ernest said she is proud to have been a member of Air Seychelles since it infancy state, to where it is today, witnessing and being part of the airline’s growth and development.

Among her many achievements during the 42 years, Mrs Ernest had the chance to work with Blake Emergency Services – a UK-based, privately owned, discrete organisation with international capabilities in the emergency preparedness and emergency response arena – during a plane crash in the Comoros and eventually became a member.

Blakes have over 255 years in the aviation industry and 120 years in the emergency response industry with over 600 team members spread across six continents.

Other good memories of her long career has been her direct involvement with many visiting dignitaries, including Pope John Paul II in December 1986, the ex-President of the People's Republic of China, Hu Jintao, in September 2007 and the late ex-French President François Mitterrand, who came to Seychelles onboard a concorde in June 1990, among many others.

A marking event in Mrs Ernest’s career is the November 25, 1981 mercenary agression where she was held hostage along with many Seychellois airport staff for several hours.

Mrs Ernest said upon being released, she ran out the airport and leaped over the river outside the building, without realising that there was an open gate and a bridge.

This, she said, was done out of fear after what she had just endured.

Roland Duval

Photos contributed