Air Seychelles has been awarded the prestigious 4-Star Airline ranking by airline review organisation, Skytrax.
Air Seychelles is the first and only 4-Star airline in the Indian Ocean, and is one of only 36 airlines in the world that meet the rigorous quality criteria of the Skytrax 4-Star airline ranking.
Cramer Ball, Air Seychelles’ Chief Executive Officer, said: “We are absolutely delighted to receive this recognition. We have been working very hard to enhance our product and service offering. Our new ranking places us among the very best airlines in the world and confirms the significant progress we have made during the last two years.
“The award is also indicative of the enormous commitment and effort by our staff, who with our equity partner, Etihad Airways, have worked to reshape our offering while retaining the very unique Creole warmth and hospitality for which we are renowned.”
The achievement was announced to delighted staff and traveling guests and members of the public by Mr Ball during an unveiling ceremony held at the Seychelles International Airport terminal today, January 3, 2014.
The official Skytrax Airlines Star ranking is universally recognized as an independent and creditable measure of the service quality of an airline and the evaluation given is considered by the industry as both dependable and authoritative.
Air Seychelles was awarded its 4-star rating after a rigorous auditing exercise by Skytrax in recent months. In June 2013, the airline leapt from 133 to 56 worldwide to join the ranks of the most improved airlines.
It also achieved the position as second best airline in Africa.
Edward Plaisted, Chief Executive Officer of Skytrax, said: “Air Seychelles has introduced new aircraft offering extensive product improvements, and this combined with a strong service quality ethos from their front-line staff has resulted in Air Seychelles now meeting a 4-Star Airline rating. We congratulate Air Seychelles on this fantastic achievement, which is particularly important when one considers that the 4-Star Airline classification includes some of the world’s largest and best known airlines”.
Air Seychelles’ Chairman and Minister for Home Affairs and Transport, Joel Morgan said: “This is a remarkable accolade for a relatively small airline.
“I am immensely proud of this achievement and what it represents for our national carrier. The turnaround program we put in place two years ago is clearly bearing fruit in many areas.
“Financially we met our target, achieving profitability in 2012, and we’re on track to build on that success as 2013 draws to a close. This has been a remarkable 35th anniversary for Air Seychelles: we welcomed our second Airbus A330-200, launched flights to Hong Kong and expanded our international schedule, and signed four new codeshare partnerships. We renewed our domestic fleet with the purchase of three new DHC6-400 twin otter aircraft and entered the luxury private air market with the launch of Air Seychelles VIP, Seychelles first Fixed Base Operation.”
Skytrax ranks an airline’s frontline product and service standards based on an internationally recognised quality analysis system and professional evaluations. The performance analysis is completed annually and rankings are categorised by region and across the world.
The national carrier of the Republic of Seychelles is now ranked as the No. 2 Airline in Africa, up eight places from its previous ranking of 10 last year, and now holds the No. 3 spot for Best Airline Staff in Africa, a category in which the airline held no ranking last year. In addition, Air Seychelles is now ranked fourth in the Most Improved category.
About Air Seychelles
Air Seychelles was established in 1978 and began long-haul service in 1983. The airline currently offers international flights to Abu Dhabi, Johannesburg, Hong Kong and Mauritius. Air Seychelles also offers more than 200 domestic scheduled flights a week throughout the archipelago, as well as domestic charter services. As the national airline of the Republic of Seychelles, Air Seychelles is a pillar of tourism, the island nation’s strongest and growing economic sector. The airline maintains a strategic partnership with Etihad Airways, the national airline of the United Arab Emirates and 40 per cent stakeholder. For more information, please visit: www.airseychelles.com.
About Skytrax
SKYTRAX, established in 1989, is an airline consulting and rating company based in London, UK. In addition to the Airline Star Ratings, which ranks airlines between 1-Star and 5-Star, the company also organizes the World Airline Awards, which are based on an evaluation of more than 200 airlines assessed each year using SKYTRAX’s own online questionnaire and various other customer surveys. http://www.airlinequality.com/
