Captain Robert Marie of Seychelles Airlines has confirmed that the new private sector airline is finalizing plans to launch their services to Europe and Asia. Lawyer Philippe Boule is the man standing behind the airline that is set to show that they will succeed where the country’s National Airlines “Air Seychelles” has failed.
Capt Marie has been flying in and out of Seychelles in the last couple of weeks to finalize the lease of their aircraft, and he is also putting into place arrangements for the start of their operations.
Seychelles Airlines, a local private airline company, has said it is expected to start its operations before the end of 2018 with two Boeing 767 which caters for 213 passengers and will employ both Seychellois and foreigners.
Capt. Robert Marie of Seychelles Airlines
“The other airlines are coming here from over there. We are leaving here to go over there. So what we need to do is find out how to fill up the plane when we reach that destination. This is the strategy we need to work on. The airline industry was easier before than now. It is a fact that it is more difficult now. But we have seen great improvement in that area and the business is moving in the right direction that we would have wished for,” said Captain Marie in a previous press interview a couple of months ago.
Captain Marie began his career in aviation with the national airline Air Seychelles as a pilot in 1997. He began flying the Twin Otter on domestic flights. After that he was promoted to pilot where he flew Boeing planes. During the restructuring exercise at Air Seychelles in 2012, Captain Marie was among other staff members who were made redundant. He then joined forces with Mr Boulle and Mr Afif where they started the move to enter the aviation business.
On the question of the name “Seychelles Airline” that was seen as too close to “Air Seychelles”, the Supreme Court of Seychelles ruled in their favour to maintain that name after Seychelles Civil Aviation Authority (SCCA) announced they cannot use the name ‘Seychelles Airlines’ because it resembles too much the name of the national carrier Air Seychelles.
