Seychelles national airline celebrates half-a-million milestone

Mrs Kahn and husband together with the Air Seychelles crew ( Air Seychelles)

(Seychelles News Agency) - Seychelles national airline passed a major milestone this week, as evidence grows stronger that visitor numbers to the island nation are way up in 2015.

Air Seychelles said Tuesday that it has reached the half-a-million-passenger milestone this year through December 15. That’s more than a 15 percent increase from the 427,000 passengers the airline carried in all of 2014.

The honour of being the 500,000^th guest was bestowed on Olivia Kahn, who traveled to the western Indian Ocean archipelago to enjoy the warm sunshine and blue seas. The airline also honored the 180,000^th domestic passenger.

"It was a pleasure to celebrate these record achievements with our guests, a greater number of whom are choosing to fly with Air Seychelles every day, showing why we are the leading airline in the Indian Ocean region,” states the airline’s chief executive Roy Kinnear.

Kahn, who was travelling with her partner William Kahn, flew in from France’s Charles de Gaulle airport in Paris. The couple will be upgraded to business class on their flight home.

The chairman of Air Seychelles and minister of foreign affairs and transport, Joel Morgan, said that "recording these milestones is an incredible achievement for Air Seychelles that demonstrates the continued growth of the airline and the success of our strategic plan, which is on track to meet and exceed targets for 2015.”

He added that the passenger numbers have been boosted by the airline’s introduction of non-stop flights between Seychelles and Paris in July 2015. The direct flight between the archipelago’s main island Mahe and Charles de Gaulle happens three times a week.

"These developments to the network and flight schedules have resulted in thousands more travelers discovering our islands and in turn making an even bigger contribution to our tourism-based economy," explained Morgan.

France sends more visitors to the Seychelles islands than any other. According to the National Bureau of Statistics (NBS), the country has received 32,200 French visitors this year.

Seychelles surpassed the quarter-million-visitor mark earlier this month. Just over 254,000 people have visited the island nation through December 6, according to the National Bureau of Statistics. That’s up 19 percent from the same year-over-year period in 2014.