Africa-Press – Seychelles. Air Seychelles, the national carrier of Seychelles, has announced a profit of US $8.4 million for the year 2022.
In a press release issued yesterday, the airline said this was its first year of profit since 2016, when it reported a small gain of US $425,000.
After reporting a loss of US $22.7 million in 2021 and starting the year 2022 with a negative net asset position of US $100.6 million, the year 2022 was one of exceptional recovery for Air Seychelles.
Prior to the start of 2022, the airline had suffered the effects of the Covid-19 pandemic, which included the shutting down of its key routes and the shrinking of its revenue streams.
The press communique stated that through the company reorganisation (administration) process, Air Seychelles paid the agreed settlement of US $28.16 million owed to the bondholders in May 2022.
The payment was made from a US $16.5 million bank loan from Nouvobanq and US $11.7 million of Air Seychelles’ cash reserves. This marked an incredible achievement, closing the chapter on the US $71.5 million debt burden that the company had been carrying since 2015/16.
Air Seychelles successfully exited the company reorganisation in November 2022 and ended the year with a positive net asset position of US $19 million. This is an improvement of US $104 million from its net asset position of negative US $85 million at the start of the company reorganisation process.
This remarkable restructuring success was further backed by an impressive upswing in the company’s operational and ongoing financial performance.
The statement further added that the overall revenue had recovered to 93% of 2019 levels for the year and even exceeded 2019 levels in the fourth quarter of 2022.
The company managed to almost fully utilise the international jet aircraft fleet, with one aircraft dedicated to ACMI operations while the other operated commercial scheduled flight operations.
With borders reopened, scheduled operations were re-established to Johannesburg, Tel Aviv, Mauritius and Mumbai, with a seasonal Almaty operation launched in December.
By the end of 2022, the company had achieved an overall profit of US $119.6 million and, after excluding the debt write-off gains from the debt discounts during the company reorganisation process, made a profit of US $8.4 million.
This profit enabled Air Seychelles to make repayments on its debt obligations.
The board of directors and the acting chief executive would like to extend their gratitude to all its employees, the government of Seychelles, the Administrators, the creditors, its legal counsels, and the general public for their contributions and support provided to the company in achieving one of the greatest positive turnarounds in the history of Air Seychelles.
The national carrier has been flying for over 45 years. Wholly owned by the government of Seychelles, the carrier operates regionally from its home in Mahé to Tel Aviv, Johannesburg, Mumbai, Mauritius, Colombo, and Maldives with state-of-the-art Airbus A320NEOs. Domestically the carrier operates up to 30 roundtrips a day to Praslin, the second largest island in the archipelago, along with various charters to other islands on its twin-otter fleet.
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