Etihad's vision for Air Seychelles

VICTORIA, THE SEYCHELLES // Plans by Etihad Airways to restructure its new partner, Air Seychelles, have been given an "upbeat" reception by the workforce.

"We have given the staff a road map to where we want to be in 24 months," said James Hogan, the president and chief executive of Etihad Airways, after an address to a town hall meeting of airline staff in Victoria, the capital of the Seychelles. "They now know exactly where they stand in this plan, and they have made it clear to us they understand what is at stake."

Most of the 660 employees, including pilots, engineers, cabin crew, management and ground staff, turned up to the meeting in a positive mood to be addressed by Mr Hogan and members of the new Air Seychelles board.

They were told a six-week consultation programme would take place between the new management and the workforce.

"We have made it clear we will consult on the best way to carry out this restructuring," said Mr Hogan. "There are 250 jobs affected, and we want to establish how best we deal with that, whether it is through redeployment of staff, or redundancies, or even transfers to our operation in Abu Dhabi."

Etihad purchased a 40 per cent share in Air Seychelles in January and has embarked on a two-year plan to return the state carrier to profitability. The programme will involve leasing two new A330 airliners, extensive retraining of the Air Seychelles workforce and launching service to Beijing and Johannesburg.

The partnership follows two years of financial instability at the airline. Last year, the Seychelles government injected 125 million Seychelles rupees (Dh31m) in cash to meet operating costs and 225m rupees in the form of loans.

"We have worked hard to identify areas in which Air Seychelles can improve operations and cut costs," said Cramer Ball, the new chief executive of Air Seychelles.

"This plan is a clearly laid out working document that will see us not only grow quickly, but will establish us as the carrier of choice in the Indian Ocean region and beyond."

Increased code-sharing with Etihad will open up a potential network of 73 destinations in 49 countries.

"We told the staff that Air Seychelles is a strong business proposition, and Etihad Airways will do everything we can to ensure it achieves sustainable growth while offering passengers best-in-class service," said Mr Hogan.

"When we partnered with Air Seychelles, we made a commitment to support Air Seychelles' quest to emerge as a viable airline offering world-class service commensurate with that being offered by Etihad Airways. The business plan we presented is the tangible result of that commitment.

"It makes strong commercial sense for us to work together on issues where cooperation is possible. The resulting synergies will bring about significant efficiency benefits for both Etihad Airways and Air Seychelles."

dblack@thenational.ae

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