OREANDA-NEWS. On 23 January 2009 was announced, that Air Seychelles, the flag carrier of the Republic of Seychelles has inaugurated scheduled services into Vnukovo International from the nation’s Island of Mahe. The schedule is a weekly frequency to be operated Saturdays using the Boeing 767-200 as standard equipment on the route. This international route is an all-new addition to Vnukovo International’s impressive route network.

The flights will depart Mahe at 12:10 p.m. local time, arriving in Vnukovo at 8:15 p.m. local time in Moscow. The return services will leave Vnukovo at 10:15 p.m. local time to land back in Mahe at 8 a.m. local time the next day (Sunday).

Air Seychelles was founded in 1978 initially as a domestic carrier. The international flights to Europe commenced in 1983 with the opening of the Seychelles-Frankfurt-London route. The Air Seychelles of today is one of the leading carriers in the Indian Ocean Region. The airline operates a fleet of 7 aircraft. The B-767-300 type aircraft in particular serve its international routes to London, Paris, Milan, Rome, and Frankfurt, whereas the Boeing 767-200 type jetliners are operated predominantly on intra-regional routes (within the IOR and beyond) to Mauritius, Johanesburg, Singapore, and Bangkok. The domestic inter-island services are almost exclusively the domain of the Shorts 360-300 and the DHC-6 Twin Otter light turboprops.

The Republic of Seychelles is an island state totaling 450 square kilometers in area, and located in the Western part of the Indian Ocean, approximately 1600 km west of the African mainland. Over a hundred islands comprise the nation’s territory with only 33 of them populated. Mahe Island is the largest in the archipelago and it is there that the nation’s capital, the City of Victoria as well as the international airport are located.