Air Seychelles’ links to Mauritian Finance Minister under spotlight again
Air Seychelles continued links with the current Minister of Finance of Mauritius, Mr Rama Krishna Sithanen has come under fresh spotlight following a “secretive” trip he made to Mahe on our national state owned carrier. For a number of years before becoming a Minister at the last election, Sithanen had been a highly paid consultant to Air Seychelles.
The Mauritian press notes that the trip during the long weekend of All Saints Day was not publicised, unlike the minister’s previous travels overseas. In Mauritius, there is speculation that Sithanen is still a part-time and paid consultant to Air Seychelles.
Last year, the Mauritian press revealed that Air Seychelles CEO David Savy and his counterpart in Air Mauritius, Nirvan Veerasamy had shares in a company called Verling, which provided services to airlines including Air Seychelles. The same year, Air Seychelles gave Air Mauritius 100 seats out of the 280 on its Seychelles/London routes and extended the flight to Mauritius. This was tantamount with depriving Seychelles of airline capacity while increasing that of Mauritius, its competitive neighbour for British and European tourists. Veerasamy later resigned from Verling to save his position with the Mauritius national carrier as a result of the scandal. It is not clear if David Savy has done the same.
Air Seychelles’ Mauritian connections are well-known. Several of CEO David Savy’s senior staffs are Mauritian. Sithanen was a highly paid consultant until he was re-elected to Parliament in Mauritius and became one of three deputy prime ministers, as well as being the Minister of Finance. One of CEO David Savy’s top aides, is Rajiv Bissessur a Mauritian who is said to have been recruited by Savy after a chance encounter on the plane, still green from university. His wife has also landed a senior post with the airline. Asvin Seboo, son of the manager of Ste Anne Resort, where David Savy’s younger brother, Francis is a shareholder with a Mauritian company, also worked for Air Seychelles.
There are reports that the eldest of the three Savy brothers, Glenny, who is CEO of the parastatal Seychelles Island company (IDC), frequently brings highly placed Mauritian businessmen to Seychelles via the outlying islands on the company plane, and favours Mauritian management companies to manage tourist establishments on these islands constructed with subsidised funds from the Seychelles Government.
This begs the question of where does Savy’s allegiance lie? Mauritius or Seychelles?
It is an open secret that successive agreements between Air Seychelles and Air Mauritius have always been to the advantage of Mauritius. This includes the code sharing deal on the Mauritius-Seychelles-London route, where seats to London were being sold in Port-Louis at half the cost being quoted in Seychelles, despite the greater distance.
In the past, a joint flight to Singapore was used by Air Mauritius to channel most of its passengers travelling on rebate.
