Non-stop to France!

The Seychelles national carrier, Air Seychelles, is expected to start non-stop flights to France as of July 2015, offering a thrice-weekly service between the archipelago’s main island of Mahé and the Charles de Gaulle airport in Paris.

Seychelles is registering double-digit growth in tourism arrivals from France, our number one market, since the beginning of this year. Following a drop last year where it was replaced by Germany as the Seychelles main tourism market, France is back in the leading seat in tourism arrivals at the beginning of 2015. According to latest figures available from the National Bureau of Statistics website, 7,521 French visitors have travelled to Seychelles up to March 8, which is a nine percent increase when compared to the same period last year.

Air Seychelles re-launched flights to Paris via Abu Dhabi at the beginning of July last year after a two and a half year absence operating twice weekly flights between Seychelles and Paris.The lack of non-stop flights was one of the main complaints of people travelling between the two destinations. Some of the top French tour operators marketing Seychelles as a tourist destination also highlighted this concern as one of their main challenges during a meeting with the Seychelles tourism authorities in France last year.The decision was then taken for passengers travelling between Seychelles and Paris on the Seychelles national carrier, to remain onboard the aircraft while on transit in Abu Dhabi following approval for Air Seychelles to make "technical stops only in Abu Dhabi" on the way to the Indian Ocean archipelago.

Following the announcement that direct flights will now be possible as of July, support of all stakeholders, locally and overseas is key to ensuring the success and viability of the operation - the trade, tourism marketing and promoters need to make things happen in support of this initiative. Let us work hard together as a team to make it a resounding success for Seychelles!

-Seychelles News Agency-