Air Seychelles turns around, posts profit in 2012

MANILA, Philippines - Air Seychelles, the national airline of the Republic of Seychelles, today reported a net profit of $1 million for the 2012 financial year.

The positive result comes just 12 months after Etihad Airways acquired a 40 per cent stake in the airline and was awarded a five year management contract. The profit follows three years of significant losses.

The chairman of Air Seychelles, Joel Morgan, said the past year had been focused on reshaping the business of the iconic Indian Ocean airline for success.

“The choice of Etihad Airways as a strategic partner has been the right one.  Working with our new partner, we have had to make some hard decisions to turn the airline around.  We are now seeing the successful results of our strategy,” he said.

“To record a profit after the immense challenges we faced a year ago is an incredible achievement.  I am proud of the enormous progress Air Seychelles has made.  The recovery of Air Seychelles is a new chapter not only in our airline’s history – but our nation’s.  I am confident we have now laid the ground work for sustainable profitability and our brightly-coloured aircraft will cheer the skies for years to come,” Morgan said.

Chief executive officer of Air Seychelles, Cramer Ball, said: “In the first instance, this meant looking at the cost-base, and then stripping down the business right across the airline’s operations to find the right shape and size for our national carrier. We introduced strict fiscal control in parallel with business process re-engineering to make our operation more efficient. We are a very different business today.”

He attributed this success to leveraging the economies of scale and synergies arising from the equity alliance with shareholder, Etihad Airways.