AIR SEYCHELLES From a captain to a doctor

IN any country in the world, replacing the CEO of a national airline is big story; news that call for profiling of the new boss.

Not so in Seychelles. Captain David Savy, who has been at the centre of several controversies lately, went away saying his replacement, a Mauritian national, who has been his second-in-command for several years, was as capable as he. The Seychelles airline , supposedly the pride of the Creole spirit, is now headed by a Mauritian- a Dr Rajiv Bissessur.

Since when did Bissessur earn a doctorate, when he joined Air Seychelles green from university in UK and recruited by Savy himself, we shall probably never know.

But he did become Air Seychelles' new golden boy and no other Seychellois was ever trained to step in the CEO' shoes. So much for all the talk about localisation of posts!

This newspaper has often revealed how Savy, ex-President Rene's stepson, was heavily involved in all kinds deals which boiled down to conflicts of interest.  These, he did to top up his 67,000 euro salary which, as a Seychellois, he was not entitled to. A car hire salesman was jailed by former CJ Allear for possession of a tiny fraction of that amount of forex.

His involvement with Vening, a company leasing planes and providing other services to aircrafts, unleashed a scandal in the regional press a couple of years ago.

More recently, there was the leasing of the old plane called " La Belle Creole", but popularly known " La Vieille Creole", whose toilets, lights and hand luggage compartments are defective among other things. Savy himself added another list of flaws, but said we must not complain since British Airways or Lufthansa have also got old planes in their fleets.

But we are talking about an aircraft Seychellois pay heftily to fly on with no comfort.

Air Seychelles' misfortunes in Paris and Johannesburg have, to quote Savy himself , cost the airline over $ 10 million.  This newspaper has learnt that Air France had not accepted liability for the accident at Charles de Gaulle Airport, which necessitated the plane being completely stripped down in a hangar.

History repeats itself, as some years back Air Seychelles refused liability in a rather similar accident when an Indian plane sustained heavy damage at Pointe Larue. A taste of the same medicine, Capt Savy.  Anyway, he should not worry too much as he clearly has interests in tourism. SBC TV has on more than one occasion shown him at Silhouette on the site of a large hotel said to be promoted by a Maldivian company now firmly implanted in our islands.

We have also often written of how all agreements with Air Mauritius were always to the advantage of the Mauritians.

This will hardly change with Bisessur, Savy's confidant at the helm. Soon after his recruitment he brought in his wife at Air Seychelles, where she also got a top post, lording over competent Seychellois. Like Savy, he shall also earn a fat salary in Euros.

Whichever government is in power in Mauritius can bask in the comfort that they have their man at the top of Air Seychelles. Others have already been allocated huge chunks or islands for an extension of their own booming tourism industry and can repatriate most of the profits. And the sun will continue to shine.