Turkish Airlines has announced that it will be resuming regular flights to the Seychelles islands from its home base, Istanbul Airport from Friday, April 23, 2021.
This is part of Turkish Airlines’ plans to restart COVID-safe international passenger services to several destinations including Seychelles, after the airline suspended its services to the island in March 2020.
Initially, the airline will fly twice weekly to Seychelles – Tuesday and Friday – but with an expected schedule change from July 12, 2021 with flights on Tuesday and Saturday.
Turkish Airlines’ return to the Indian Ocean islands follows the country re-opening its borders to all international tourist markets on March 25, 2021. So far, five airlines have either resumed or commenced new flights to the destination.
Turkish Airlines will be flying to Seychelles with a wide-bodied A330-300 aircraft, with a seating capacity of 289 seats – 28 in Business Class and 261 in Economy.
All passengers boarding the flights to Seychelles will be required to test negative 72hrs before departure. No quarantine is required upon arrival at the destination.
With the majority of Seychelles’ main source markets either under full or partial lockdown, the Central and Eastern Europe regions have been very much on the radar and Turkish Airlines’ announcement of its return to the islands has been greeted with much enthusiasm by the local trade.
The Chief Executive of the Seychelles Tourism, Sherin Francis, said the airline has always been a reliable and popular carrier for the Central and Eastern Europe markets, and its return will help re-stimulate valuable traffic from there.
“The flight on 23rd April will mark the re-start of Turkish Airlines’ inbound commercial flights to Seychelles after a period of suspension due to the pandemic. Its return to our shores will now provide more choice to passengers travelling to Seychelles, especially from Central and Eastern Europe.
“With Turkish Airlines being a favourite for passengers from that region, we expect to see a positive pick up in visitors from there, especially from the markets which have been waiting for Seychelles to open up,” she said.
On his part, Fatih Mehmet Kursun, General Manager of Turkish Airlines for Seychelles said; “We are very excited to be returning to Seychelles after a long, mandatory break. Resuming our flights to the islands already had a huge impact on the market. We are very pleased with the demand we have received from Central and Eastern Europe so far and we are looking forward to our first flight on the 23rd of April, 2021.”
