Air Seychelles announces codeshare expansion with Etihad Airways to Dublin

Air Seychelles, the national airline of the Republic of Seychelles, continues to build its presence in Europe with an expansion of its codeshare agreement with Etihad Airways to Ireland.

With the agreement, Air Seychelles will place its two-letter ‘HM’ code on Etihad Airways flights between Abu Dhabi and Dublin, complementing the island carrier’s current European codeshares with Etihad Airways to Brussels, Düsseldorf, Frankfurt, Munich, Geneva, London, Manchester, Milan, and Paris.

The expansion comes at a time when tourism figures from the UK and Eire to the archipelago have been surging, with visitor arrivals from UK and Eire up 21% from a year ago. Overall European visitor arrivals are up 14% from 2012.

Air Seychelles flies 7 times a week to Etihad Airways’ Abu Dhabi hub, and in total, the two carriers offer 10 return flights per week to the island archipelago, including a daily service. The combined schedules already allow extensive onward connectivity to destinations across the Middle East, Africa, Asia, and Australia. In addition to the codeshare with Etihad Airways, Air Seychelles also has a codeshare agreement with airberlin to Berlin and Düsseldorf.

Cramer Ball, Air Seychelles’ Chief Executive Officer, said: “We are delighted to announce this codeshare expansion to Ireland with our equity alliance partner, Etihad Airways.

“Seychelles has a strong affinity with the UK and Eire, hearkening to a time when Seychelles was a British colony, and this expansion demonstrates our continuing commitment to Seychelles’ traditional tourist markets and to provide convenient, seamless options for our guests.

Along with our organic growth, codeshare partnerships will form a major pillar of our expansion plans, and we shall announce more expansions in the coming weeks.”

Seychelles has recently strengthened ties with Ireland with the launch of the Seychelles Young Leaders Programme, a master’s program supervised by the University of Seychelles and the Institute of Public Administration (IPA), a college of the National University of Ireland, as well as a partnership program between the Seychelles Tourism Academy and Ireland’s Shannon College of Hotel Management, with successful graduates receive a bachelor’s degree in Tourism and Hospitality Management.

The new Air Seychelles codeshare flights will be on sale today for travel from 4 April. Travellers can book tickets through travel agents, Air Seychelles’ call centre or through the company’s website at www.airseychelles.com.