Dear
Sir,
I am sick of
hearing Minister Morgan singing the praises of the “Strategic Partnership Agreement” between Etihad and Air Seychelles and how it
has benefitted the country.
I have been the
most frequent flyer that Air Seychelles Domestic has had for the last 10 or so
years. I live on Praslin and for years I have travelled the Mahe, Praslin
return trip every day. As a result of the very poor service I have had to rent
accommodation on Mahe and these days I only travel to Praslin at weekends and I
am sorry to tell Minister Morgan that for me a real benefit of this “strategic”
partnership would at the very least be a service that is, at a minimum
“satisfactory”
There is hardly a
time when the flights leave on time or that there are sufficient flights to
meet the demands of commuters. The only concerns of Air Seychelles/ Etihad is
for tourists to make the connecting flights and the rest of us locals who have
to get to work at 8 a.m or some other time can “swim” to Mahe and back.
If my flight from
Mahe to Praslin is at 5: 40 on Friday evening is it too much to expect that the
flight will leave on time? What happens if I have booked a taxi to pick me up
and drop me at the jetty to make my connection to La Digue, will Air
Seychelles/ Etihad pay for my overnight stay on Praslin or foot the bill for a
private boat to take me to La Digue ?
I have used Air
Seychelles Domestic services before the “Strategic Partnership Agreement” with
Etihad and as a consumer I can tell you that the service has not improved, it
has gone from bad to worse and despite all the technological and so called
‘state of the art” equipment allegedly installed, the underpaid workers have
more often than not, had to rely on the old and trusted “manual” way of doing
things.
The only saving
grace is the professionalism and back breaking work performed by the staff at
the check-in counters. I would like to take this opportunity to once again
congratulate one and all, from porters to pilots for a thankless job because
the abuse they get from angry and frustrated passengers is to be heard and seen
to be believed. With the increased profits have the staff received a pay rise?
Is the success of
an airline judged simply by the profit margin? Does customer satisfaction not
feature at all in the equation? I was
less critical of the service when it was operated by Air Seychelles because I
had conditioned myself to accept the usual mediocre service but with the coming
on board of Etihad and all the hype, I had expected a world class service which
started with each passenger being
offered a little container of ice cold water but as with almost everything that
Joel Morgan brokers, sooner or later it will flop and my sincere hope as a passenger is that this “Strategic
Partnership Disaster” is not renewed.
Finally if any one
is planning on using Air Seychelles Domestic to get them to church on time for
their wedding or to a loved one’s funeral please be advised that “DUE TO UNFORSEEN CIRCUMSTANCES THE FLIGHT
HAS BEEN DELAYED FOR REASONS BEYOND OUR CONTROL SUCH AS:
1 We cannot retain
our pilots because we under pay them so all our planes are sitting on the run
way.
2
Our state of the
art computers at the check-in counter have failed
3
Only one of our
5/6 planes is working.
4
Tower did not
inform us that there are international flights landing / taking off so we
cannot take off on time
We apologise for
the delay and we hope that next time you will use an alternative carrier.”
Yours sincerely ,
Alexia G. Amesbury
