Kenya Airways has suspended flights between Nairobi and Mahe until the end of January, as COVID-19 suppresses demand to the destination. The carrier is among four other airlines which have reduced or suspended their flights to Seychelles, owing to a spike in Coronavirus cases at the beginning of 2021.
Kenya Airways resumed their flights to Mahe on December 18.
Emirates airlines will reduce their flights to the Indian Ocean tourist destination from five to four flights a week until February. On the other hand, British Airways cancelled its January flights while Air Austral cancelled all their scheduled flights to Seychelles.
Seychelles Civil Aviation Authority (SCAA) says the stark increase in COVID-19 cases from source markets, and the restrictions after that lowered traveller confidence and therefore demand.
“Over the past week, there has been a stark increase in COVID cases from our source markets and new restrictions have been put in place in most of those countries. Henceforth, dampening traveller confidence and impacting on-demand,” SCAA Corporate Communications Manager Lina Laurence told Seychelles News Agency.
While the different airlines have set timeframes to readjust their flights to the destination, the SCAA says it is difficult to guarantee that the airlines will resume operations as planned.
“Fluidity and unpredictability of the current situation makes it so that even though airlines have specified a timeframe for the suspension or readjustment of schedule, it is difficult to ascertain whether they would resume operations as indicated.”
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