The Seychelles Islands is expecting a flock of visitors from the Eastern European market of Romania as Air Seychelles starts a new charter series tomorrow Friday, April 30, 2021.
The Indian Ocean archipelago’s national airline will be operating charter flights between Romania’s capital city, Bucharest, and Mahé island, becoming the first-ever direct flight linking the two countries.
For its first voyage, the 9-hour flight, operated by the Air Seychelles 168-seat capacity A320Neo aircraft has been sold out and expected to land at the Seychelles International Airport at 0930 hours.
Leaving Bucharest at 2300 hours on Thursday, the flight will make an in-between technical stop in Cairo, Egypt for refueling before resuming its path to Seychelles.
These weekly charters will continue until Monday, May 17, coming back for the summer season in August and subsequently for winter in December.
The initial flights spanning over April to May are expected to bring in 500 passengers, which the Seychelles Tourism Board has described as very promising for the destination.
STB’s Chief Executive, Mrs. Sherin Francis, expressed the tourism industry’s excitement, stating, “The news of the charters from Romania augurs very well with our tourism recovery efforts as more and more markets see us as being a safe destination, appreciating our core focus on safety with minimum inconvenience to our visitors.”
Remco Althuis, Chief Executive Officer at Air Seychelles commented: “At a time where travel is still restricted from certain destinations, we are happy to work with key partners to explore opportunities beyond our network, to boost inbound tourism into the Seychelles.
“As we look forward to operating the first charter flight from Romania, we will continue to work closely with the STB to increase visibility of the national airline and destination Seychelles to further develop Eastern European markets like Romania, which has enormous potential for the Seychelles tourism industry.”
He further stated that as Seychelles becomes an increasingly attractive destination, it was important that the airline seized business opportunities whenever available to recover and sustain their operations.
With Seychelles featuring amongst a host of popular locations welcoming tourists warmly, the collective initiative is expected to increase the destination’s visibility and appeal to the Eastern European market.
Several local partners collaborated actively with the Eturia Tour Operator in Romania to realise these charters, notably the Seychelles Tourism Board, 7 South and Air Seychelles. It is to be noted that Eturia has been selling Seychelles for the past 12 years.
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