Air Seychelles. an airline facing difficulties may be advised to concentrate on its core business. The news that Air Seychelles has formed a new partnership with CarTrawler technology platform to provide its passengers with ground transportation arrangements, amidst staff redundancy announcements, has not been well received in Seychelles.
CarTrawler is an online booking service which aims to bypass the airport taxi queue system as it pre-books such services and will deal with their service providers. The Country is already facing challenges with different non-licensed service providers and this latest Air Seychelles arrangement will in due course bring more pressure on regulatory bodies.
It is questionable whether this latest endeavor, under the circumstances, was strictly necessary. The priority should surely be to improve the existing system, improving the quality of service on board the aircraft, improving check-in counter experience and the telephone operator of the Airline’s answering services, as these personal touches impress the tourists more than anything else. Today, a telephone call to flight information outside the scope of 8am to 4pm results in a bland pre-recorded message reminding the public of the operating hours, which is not very helpful if a flight is expected to arrive outside of those hours.
The Seychelles Taxi Association is monitoring the situation closely and intends to respond formally shortly, as their interests are directly impacted by this latest endeavor. They also intend to take up the matter with the Minister responsible for Land Transport and also with the Minister who has the oversight of Air Seychelles.
SOURCE: Alain St.Ange Consulting
