In the Aeroflot airline system, there is no longer a free sale of tickets from Moscow to Mahe (Seychelles) for the summer period, after May 15. Although the flights were announced. Experts of the travel market do not exclude technical issues related to the maintenance of aircraft of the national carrier abroad. But even if they are, the root cause, with a high degree of probability, lies still in the commercial plane.
At the moment, there are no tickets for Seychelles from Moscow on the Aeroflot website for the period from May 15 to October 2, 2024. However, according to the information previously provided by the carrier, flights were planned for the summer. At the end of March, the airline published a summer schedule, which featured flights to Mahe. In addition, travel agents note that there are tourists who managed to purchase tickets for canceled flights.
Vestnik ATOR asked questions about the fate of flights and tourists to representatives of the press service of the national air carrier, but there was no response by the time of publication of the article.
CLIENTS OF TOUR OPERATORS WILL FLY ON CONNECTING FLIGHTS
According to the tour operators interviewed by our publication, their customers were not affected by Aeroflot's decision: someone in the system had not had flights from the national carrier to Mahe for several weeks, someone's tourists simply initially prefer to fly with foreign airlines with a connection. According to the estimates of the Seychelles tourism authorities, about half (45%) of the total Russian tourist flow are such."In addition to Aeroflot, our tourists fly to Seychelles by Emirates, Qatar Airways Etihad and Ethiopian Airlines. For the dates after May 15, there was one application for Aeroflot, but it so happened that it flew off at the initiative of the customer," ITM Group told Vestnik ATOR.
There have been no Aeroflot tickets in the Ambotis Holidays system for the middle of May and beyond for some time now.
"All our applications land safely on connecting flights of foreign companies," the company says.Similar information was shared in Space Travel. The same was confirmed in Intourist, noting that the operator's tourists fly to the Seychelles on Emirates. In the Russian Express They agree that the removal of flights, all other things being equal, will not be a problem – there are many options for connecting flights.
And it is often cheaper to fly with a connection.
But the carrier did not send any additional notifications about the cancellation of the flight program to tour operators.
Thus, the clients of tour operators were not affected by the actions of the national carrier – questions remain only with respect to those tourists who purchased tickets separately or planned a trip on their own. To date, there is no exact information about how they will fly to the Seychelles and whether they will fly.PREVIOUSLY, AEROFLOT FLEW TO THE SEYCHELLES ALL YEAR ROUND
Predictably, given the current situation, experts in the travel industry have suspicions that Aeroflot has again had some problems servicing flights abroad. But even if they are, the decisive factor, with a high degree of probability, is still the commercial component.
"Aeroflot's decision is generally logical, it is refocusing on other summer and mass destinations. It's low season in the Seychelles," Space Travel says.
Although a year earlier, the "seasonality" of the air carrier did not stop: Aeroflot was the only airline that purposefully transported tourists to Mahe all year round. Even the prospect of increasing the frequency of flights to 4 per week was discussed. The rest of the flights from Europe, Condor, for example, flew only in winter. Emirates, Qatar Airways and the region's airlines provided year-round service to the islands.
Ekaterina Tropova
Please note that this press release is based on materials provided by the company. AK&M Information Agency shall not be held liable for its contents, nor for the legal and other consequences of its publication.
