Airlines to reconnect Seychelles from March

Mumbai: From March-end, the Seychelles archipelago is set to be reconnected with India with airline flights flying non-stop between Mumbai and Mahe twice a week, said an Air Seychelles official, adding that an air travel bubble between the two countries has been signed. That would add another outbound destination to the teeny list of foreign destinations that Indian tourists, who rely solely on airline flights, can travel to during the pandemic.

Currently too Seychelles is open to Indian tourists — those who fly into the island country onboard chartered flights or private aircraft with a negative RT-PCR test report in tow, that is. Tourists from India flying in on airline flights from March-end onwards too would need to carry a negative Covid-19 PCR certificate with the test taken maximum of 72 hours prior to departure, said a Seychelles Tourism Board (STB) official.

Seychelles, which recently launched its Covid vaccination programme, announced on Wednesday that the island country has “re-opened borders to all countries worldwide with immediate effect”. In the coming months, the country will be simplifying and relaxing some of the restrictive measures to relaunch its tourism industry.