Showing posts with label Air Seychelles. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Air Seychelles. Show all posts

Cramer Ball is New Air Seychelles CEO

9:08 AM nero
Barely four months into his tenure as CEO of Air Seychelles, former Kenya Airways COO Bram Stellar has been replaced as CEO of Air Seychelles by former Etihad Airways Regional Manager for Asia Pacific and Australasia Mr Cramer Ball. Several other Etihad Airways executives have been forwarded to Air seychelles to restructure the airline including Shelley Cole, a former Etihad Airways Regional Finance Manager for Asia Pacific who will now assume her new role as Air Seychelles CFO.

Etihad Airways paid $20million in January 2012 for a 40% stake in Air Seychelles.

As to the fate of Bram Stellar, Wolfgang H Thome reports:
No word could be received inspite of repeated efforts on the fate of Mr. Bram Stellar, who had only joined Air Seychelles as Chief Executive in October last year and who embarked in an immediate cost-saving programme and cutting down of the airlines routes, first dropping Singapore and then in a bombshell announcement phasing out all European destinations like London, Paris, Milan and Rome. Bram came from Kenya Airways, where he served a second spell as highly respected Chief Operating Officer.

Here is the latest PR announcement on the appointment of Cramer Ball as Air Seychelles CEO:

According to the latest news from the Islands, the Seychelles Minister Joel Morgan,  responsible for Transport in the Government of Seychelles, and Mr James Hogan, the President and Chief Executive Officer of Etihad Airways, have announced that the appointment of Cramer Ball as Chief Executive Officer, with effect from February 1, 2012 under the management contract that it has with Etihad Airways, its new strategic partner.


The Minister stated that the President of Seychelles, President James Michel has welcomed the arrival of a strong management team from Etihad to orient Air Seychelles on a robust and secure footing, in order to position it for future development to serve Seychelles’ tourism industry internationally.


Mr Ball, who was formerly Etihad Airways Regional General Manager Asia Pacific South and Australasia, has been seconded to the Seychelles national carrier as part of the restructuring for Air Seychelles which will be implemented jointly with Etihad Airways.


With a wealth of broad-based industry experience, which encompasses both commercial and financial areas of the business, Mr Ball is a highly respected aviation professional.


Before joining Etihad Airways, in a career spanning two decades, he held senior management positions at Gulf Air, Qantas, Kendell Airlines and Ansett Australia/Air New Zealand.


Commenting on his new role, Air Seychelles Chief Executive Officer, Mr Ball said: “This is a very exciting point in the development of the airline. The recently announced strategic partnership with Etihad Airways, backed by the 40 per cent stake the UAE national carrier has taken, will allow us to consolidate our position as a brand leader on the routes we serve.


“Air Seychelles will work closely with Etihad Airways to leverage synergies and create efficiencies that will reduce costs and maximise yields. We will also look to implement strategies that will benefit the economy and support the tourism industry of the Seychelles as a whole.”


Shelley Cole has also been seconded to Air Seychelles to take on the position of Chief Financial Officer, effective immediately. Prior to joining Air Seychelles, Ms Cole, who is a member of the Institute of Chartered Accountants, was Etihad Airways Regional Finance Manager Asia Pacific, and has also held positions at Shell International Ltd in London and Caltex in Sydney.

Email Us at FlightAfricablog@gmail.com
Labels: 0 comments | edit post

Seychelles government and Etihad Airways team up in new strategic partnership in Air Seychelles Ltd

5:38 AM nero
The Government of Seychelles and Etihad Airways, the national airline of the United Arab Emirates, have signed a Memorandum of Understanding wherein Etihad will invest to acquire a 40 per cent stake in Air Seychelles Ltd as part of a strategic partnership alliance initiative between Air Seychelles and Etihad Airways.

The deal was announced today by Joel Morgan, Seychelles Minister of Home Affairs, Environment, Transport and Energy and James Hogan, President and Chief Executive Officer of Etihad Airways.

Etihad Airways’ investment of USD 20 million will be matched by an equal capital injection from the Government of Seychelles. In addition, Etihad Airways will also provide a shareholder’s loan of USD 25 million to meet working capital requirements and support network development.
 Mr Morgan said: “This is a game-changing strategic partnership for us, establishing Air Seychelles on a sustainable growth trajectory and offering a realistic way forward for long-term commercial growth.”

“The partnership simultaneously provides international presence, strategic penetration and a bright future for our national carrier.”

“The aviation industry is under enormous pressure right now, with small airlines especially vulnerable to global economic instability and ongoing oil price volatility. In this context, consolidation offers the best possible solution for Air Seychelles. This agreement will allow Air Seychelles to share the benefits of the visionary strategy of one of the world’s leading airlines and leverage its economies of scale and synergies.”

Mr Hogan said: “This deal is consistent with our approach to expansion, which relies on the strength of strategic partnerships across the globe. The investment in the national carrier of Seychelles is a natural next step towards growing our operations in the increasingly important leisure markets of the Indian Ocean and Africa.

“The Seychelles is a renowned leisure destination and its tourism industry is surging, as indicated by record-setting visitor numbers for the island nation in 2011. There is a need for greater connectivity to support this tourism boom, and both Air Seychelles and Etihad Airways are well-positioned to leverage that demand into substantial commercial growth.

The integration of the networks will give Air Seychelles greater opportunity to tap into key tourism feeder markets across Europe – such as Germany, France, Italy and the UK – where Etihad Airways’ presence is strong and growing.”

Asia, and more specifically China, is increasingly important to the Seychelles national economy. Apart from the Seychelles strategic geographic significance as a stepping stone between China and Africa, the island nation is also an important trading partner for Chinese business and an increasingly popular leisure destination for significant numbers of Chinese travellers.

The agreement, which is the first of its kind in Africa, makes for provision for a five-year management contract for Etihad Airways which will see the implementation of strategic measures to encourage Air Seychelles’ long-term commercial growth.

Importantly, the partnership will offer unprecedented career development opportunities and access to Etihad Airways state-of-the-art training academy and facilities in Abu Dhabi for Seychellois aviation professionals.

Etihad Airways has achieved a high level of success in encouraging and facilitating the professional growth and increased presence of nationals in the organisation following the implementation of its localisation program, and will support a similar knowledge and skill transfer for Seychellois within Air Seychelles.

Another important element of the agreement gives Air Seychelles office presence in Etihad Airways offices across the Etihad Airways network. This means vastly improved marketing possibilities for the country and its national carrier.

Finally, the new partnership will further drive consolidation of key functions, resulting in significant cost savings and process optimisation.

Also under the partnership:

- Etihad Airways will seek to increase frequency of flights between Abu Dhabi and Mahé from four per week to daily, as well as providing new services to the islands;
- Etihad Airways will work in conjunction with Air Seychelles to develop a renewed fleet and network growth plan for the island-based carrier;
- The airlines will sign a comprehensive codeshare agreement to include Etihad Airways-marketed flights across Air Seychelles’ network and Air Seychelles-marketed flights to Abu Dhabi and Etihad Airways destinations across Europe, the Middle East, the GCC, Asia and Australia.
- Etihad Guest and Seychelles Bonus, the airlines’ frequent flyer programs, will be integrated to include mileage earning and redemption on each other’s flights.

This agreement is Etihad Airways’ second equity investment, following its December 2011 announcement that it would increase its stake in airberlin to 29.21 per cent, making it the single biggest shareholder in Europe’s sixth largest airline.


Email Us at FlightAfricablog@gmail.com
Labels: 1 comments | edit post

Air Seychelles' Transformation - Butterfly or Moth

12:43 AM nero
With the last European service of ‘HM’ now withdrawn, January 10th having been the watershed day for Air Seychelles, the downsizing, management would probably prefer the word ‘rightsizing’ of Air Seychelles continues.

Besides the domestic services to a number of islands, where operations continue as usual and without problems, the airline’s B 767-300’s are now largely under employed as only the services to Mauritius and Johannesburg continue to operate. It was in fact learned that two of the aircraft will commence final ‘return to lessor’ checks as required under the respective lease agreements, before they will be handed back to ILFC in the coming weeks. The remaining B 767-300 will continue to stay in service until later in the year a new B737-800 is due to be delivered to Air Seychelles, also by ILFC on a long term lease. The single aisle aircraft is expected to fly to Johannesburg and other destinations on the African mainland and across the Indian Ocean islands, though no final decisions appears to have been made as yet in this regard with various evaluations on the viability of new routes still ongoing.
Air Seychelles
Nearly 20 percent of all Air Seychelles’ staff are being made redundant, which will literally include all who were deployed in London, Paris, Milan and Rome joining their former workmates from Singapore. Ground personnel and administration staff too are said to be amongst those now having to leave the airline.

Independent airline analysts were however swift to point out that this can only be an intermediate step as any airline with eventually only one jet aircraft and a few turboprops on domestic routes would not be able to sustain over 700 employees, a challenge the company’s top management is still working on. More redundancies are likely to be announced in a more compassionate way, step by step rather than in one fell swoop, something apparently encouraged by the government which is also the sole shareholder in the national airline.

Notably has the airline also agreed with the Gulf carriers flying to the Seychelles, Emirates, Qatar Airways and Etihad, to hold another round of recruitment talks, aimed to offer those made redundant now the option to find new employment elsewhere. This exercise will take place at the airline’s training centre and run until Thursday inclusive.

Meanwhile are talks ongoing with Etihad, the national airline of Abu Dhabi and apparently Air Seychelles’ choice partner for an extensive range of code share agreements, which would be operated under dual flight numbers, to comprehensively cover the European markets but also destinations from across the global Etihad network.
The ultimate question for Air Seychelles now is what will come of this massive transformation when it is finally complete – will a shining bright and beautiful new butterfly emerge from it or will it be a dull and ugly moth?

 Source
Email Us at FlightAfricablog@gmail.com
Labels: 3 comments | edit post

Airline Crew Jobs: Gulf Airlines to absorb Air Seychelles Crew and Staff, Reducing Job Fears

1:55 PM nero
Etihad and Emirates are both confirmed to be holding a ‘job fair’ at the Air Seychelles headquarters at Mahe International Airport, aimed to ‘absorb’ qualified cockpit and cabin crew, but also aircraft technicians, ground personnel and key office staff, following the confirmed downsizing and restructuring of the archipelago’s national airline. Qatar Airways too is said to be ‘on board’ for the event, which will very likely see all available crews be offered new opportunities in the Gulf, as all three carriers are flying scheduled services between their hubs in Doha, Abu Dhabi and Dubai to the Seychelles.


Said a source close to the airline: ‘The relationship between the UAE and Seychelles is a big factor in setting up the job fair and interviews, but these airlines will also be lucky to get so many trained pilots, cabin crew and engineers in one go, with extensive job experience and plenty of flying hours. These three airlines are all expanding and all it takes for them is to give our experienced crews and technicians some conversion courses to check out on the type of aircraft they will be deployed on. None of them flies the B767 series but then the B777, or the A340 or A330 types are not too hard to learn when you already are a senior captain or senior first officer, and for the cabin crews it is really to adapt to their new aircraft type for emergency procedures and in flight service.

For us here in Seychelles it will be a sad day when our routes from Europe finally close down next year and no matter what the ‘new’ Air Seychelles will look like, and we very much want to hear from management and board what direction that will be taking, at least there are job prospects now as expatriates abroad. Some in fact may keep flying back and forth to the Seychelles, especially cabin crews and coming home will never be far for the others because there are many flights now between the Gulf and here. Some of our cockpit crew may even stay and convert to the new aircraft the company will bring in, though for them it would be a step back because one not easily goes from a wide body back to a single aisle narrow body aircraft, so that might be a challenge for the management to overcome and convince some to stay’.

Aviation observers are keenly speculating already what regional routes Air Seychelles intends to operate, besides the already existing route to Johannesburg, and what aircraft will be selected for this type of operation, very likely one of the B737NG series. As always, watch this space for emerging news from East Africa’s and the Indian Ocean Islands aviation scene.

Post Courtesy WolfGang Thome
Email Us at FlightAfricablog@gmail.com
Labels: 2 comments | edit post

Air Seychelles Rebranding: Air Seychelles undergoes major rebrand

3:11 PM nero
Air Seychelles has made a soft launch and presentation of its new livery and logo at a general staff meeting held at the Anse Royale campus of the Seychelles University.

Current Air Seychelles Livery
 The airline’s Executive Chairman, Maurice Loustau Lalanne has said : “ The airline’s new livery and logo which will also be launched at the Top Resa tourism fair in Paris next week is based on the nature and the magnificent ecosystem that Seychelles boasts and is the muse behind the creation of the logo which is a fluid organic shape, like that of a leaf, has been adopted to signal our support for a greener Seychelles, and a greener Earth.

The rebranding project was spearheaded by the airline’s Organisational Development Department headed by Ms Hazel Ho Peng who explained that the red and green colours have been used in different tones to add dimension and depth, and for a more leafy effect- the focus still being on nature.


New HM Logo

Ms Ho Peng explained that the more modern, fresh, and expressive image is still reigned over by the trademark pair of Fairy Terns, that has been the Air Seychelles icon for many years. The pair of Fairy Terns, softened into an abstracted and flowing silhouette, is the primary visual symbol of Air Seychelles. Fairy Terns pair for life, and is a compelling manifestation of not only beauty, elegance, nature and flight, but of loyalty, unity and freedom.

“ The word “air” is a lighter blue to signify the sky, while “Seychelles” is a darker blue, to signify the ocean. The colours used are commonly associated with The Seychelles- blue, green, red and white. The striking colours with the abstracted images of the birds and leaves are aimed at evoking the Seychelles’ Creole spirit, which brings us to our tagline, “Flying the Creole Spirit”,” Ms Ho Peng said.

Describing the tagline – Flying the Creole Spirit – she said that this has been kept from our previous corporate brand identity, with the intent of taking better advantage of our unique differentiation, what sets us apart from other airlines—the quintessence of the Seychelles’ “Creole Spirit”.

Flying the Creole Spirit carries a lot of meanings, but it all comes down to our unique culture, our multi-ethnicity, our welcoming and friendly people, our joie de vivre and passion, our simple and authentic island life, and the breathtaking ecology that is the Seychelles.

Defining the Creole Spirit, Ms Ho Peng said that we have come up with this concise definition that captures some of this:

“ The Creole Spirit is the ‘experience of Seychelles in a nutshell’ and It embodies a distinct approach to, and celebration of, life that is unique to the Seychelles Islands. Evoking the sights, sounds and fragrances of Seychelles, it captures the spontaneous joie-de-vivre, passion and natural warmth of the Seychellois people and echoes an authentic and exotic island life rooted in a multi-ethnic unity and family values. It is a timeless way of living, in harmony with nature”.
Labels: 0 comments | edit post