After acquiring a stake in Air Berlin, Etihad is now eyeing another airline: The airline from Abu Dhabi wants to acquire 40 percent of Air Seychelles – a memorandum of understanding has been signed to this end. Etihad intends to invest a total of 20 million US dollars and a further 25 million as a loan in the Seychelles airline. In addition, a five-year management agreement was concluded.
The connections between Abu Dhabi and Mahé will initially be increased from four to seven weekly flights. Codeshare agreements are to be concluded on selected routes. Air Seychelles’ destination and fleet planning is also to be revised.
The island state’s national airline was founded in 1978 and has been operating international flights since 1983. However, most of these have since been discontinued. Air Seychelles now flies only one Boeing 767 on international routes to Johannesburg and Mauritius and otherwise operates exclusively domestic routes with three Twin Otter 300s and one Shorts 360.