Among the smallest airlines in Africa, and in the world, we find the proud flag carrier of Seychelles. Air Seychelles is key to boosting and enabling tourists to reach and move around seamlessly from one island to the other of this small state in the Indian Ocean. So let’s take a closer look at what the Air Seychelles fleet looks like and how they use the planes they operate.
Air Seychelles 2 Larger Planes
Mahe airport, or Seychelles International Airport (SEZ), is by no means a big piece of infrastructure. I have experienced arriving and departing this airport multiple times and I can tell you it is small and crowded in peak tourist season. Therefore it is quite complicated for the flag carrier to have a large fleet with the limited amount of space and the many planes of major airlines constantly flying in and out.
The size of the airport is, as you might have guessed, one of the reasons why Air Seychelles has only 2 larger planes. These are the backbone of the very few longer range operations that the airline operates. Specifically these 2 aircraft are:
- 2 Airbus A320neo
These planes marked with registration numbers S7-PTI and S7-VEV feature:
- 12 Business Class Seats
- 158 Economy Class Seats
However, at the moment of writing this article (late May 2023) only S7-VEV is operating flights in and out of the Seychelles. At the moment Air Seychelles uses these A320neo on its flights to:
- Tel Aviv (TLV)
- Mumbai (BOM)
- Port Louis – Mauritius (MRU)
- Johannesburg (JNB)
- Colombo (CMB) starting June 20th 2023
The Nimble Twin Otter Fleet
The remainder of the operator’s fleet is formed by tiny twin propeller planes, specifically:
- 5 Viking DHC-6 Twin Otter
These are very small planes capable of welcoming up to 19 passengers. They are however key to Air Seychelles’ operations. The 5 small planes are perfect to serve the frequent short hops from the main island to the Praslin island. Twin Otters offer the perfect balance between capacity, ability to land at the small Praslin airport and cost effectiveness.
