Seychelles remains free of the Coronavirus, but COVID-19 arrived on the Island of Reunion, a French Island and part of the same Vanilla Island Region. The first case of Coronavirus was detected on Reunion Wednesday when an 80-year-old resident returned from the United States via Paris. A day later 3 more cases had been reported.
The Vanilla Island region is dependent on tourism and the arrival of the virus to this remote holiday paradise is a wake-up call for governments and tourism stakeholders in the Region. The Republic of Seychelles remains to be a non-virus holiday paradise and the Seychelles Tourism Board wants to keep it like this.
The nation’s national carrier Air Seychelles is taking a pro-active and realistic approach in canceling a series of flights across its regional and domestic network following a significant drop in passenger numbers due to the outbreak of the coronavirus in world source markets.
Effective March 26 to April 30, the national carrier will cancel 10 flights on the Mauritius route and 11 on the Johannesburg route.
On the Mumbai route, a total of 21 flights will be canceled until June 30.
Following the recent travel restrictions implemented in Israel, Air Seychelles will also cancel two flights to Tel Aviv.
A complete list of the cancel\led flights can be found on the Air Seychelles website at airseychelles.com .
Charles Johnson, the chief commercial officer of Air Seychelles, said, “Due to the negative effects of COVID-19 on-demand, we have been forced to cancel approximately 40 percent of our flying schedule through the end of April.”
Johnson said that Air Seychelles is monitoring the situation daily and “hopes that further reductions will not be necessary.”
Guests holding Air Seychelles tickets affected by these cancellations will be notified by the airline of their travel options.
As the booking performance for domestic flights has decreased tremendously, following considerable cancellations from overseas, the airline will be consolidating a number of flights on its Praslin route.
Air Seychelles has also introduced a new waiver policy to provide travelers more flexibility when booking their trips across the airline’s regional network. Travelers with tickets for travel March 4 to 31 are allowed the choice to change their travel dates with no penalty. At the time of rebooking, if a fare difference arises or taxes have increased, additional fees will apply.
Travelers requesting the complimentary date change are advised to visit their travel agency, the Air Seychelles Sales Offices in both Mahe and Praslin or contact the airline’s Call Centre by phoning (248) 4391000.
Air Seychelles is also encouraging its staff to proceed on annual leave at this time due to a reduction in activities across the entire business.