Air Seychelles makes Chennai its Asia hub

CHENNAI - With the increase in traffic between Seychelles and India, Air Seychelles has decided to start weekly direct flights between the two nations from Wednesday even as it designated this Tamil Nadu capital as its Asian hub, it was announced here Tuesday.

“Traffic between the two nations has increased. While Indians come to Seychelles for business and leisure purposes, people of our country come to Chennai for healthcare and other purposes. We have started the direct flight to cater to the growing traffic,” Air Seychelles’s executive chairman David Savy told reporters.

The direct flight will cut down the travel time to just over four hours.

According to him, the airlines, which is in the process of rebranding itself, has designated Chennai as its Asian hub and Paris as its European hub.

Seychelles is seeing 57 percent increase in travellers from Asia and more than 50 percent of that are from India which prompted the airlines to start a direct flight.

“Our people go to Singapore for shopping. But India offers good scope for shopping,” Savy added.

According to him, the basic fare between Chennai and Seychelles will be around Rs.20,000 without taxes.

“We have special offers like 50 percent discount on companion’s fare and for tour operators,” Savy said.