Good-Bye Air Seychelles?

“Answering a question regarding the uncertainty being faced by Air Seychelles employees now that the airline is being restructured, Mr Michel accepted that he had words of encouragement for the staff when he visited them earlier this year.
At that time he reassured them that the government will do whatever it can to ensure that they did not lose their job and the airline would continue its operation as the national airline.
“But today the situation has changed,” said Mr Michel.
He added that in spite of all goodwill, and the desire to do good things, often there are unforeseen circumstances upon which we have no control and in cases like that we have to be realistic and accept what we can and cannot do.
“Air Seychelles today is in a situation where it can no longer sustain its operations and the government is also in a situation where it can no longer sustain the airline, thus the decision for it to restructure and in the process it is inevitable that some employees are affected,” he said (Nation 22.11.2011)

Granted, no one has the gift to look into the future. Adjusting the present on the basis of what has been seen in the future, would effectively cancel out any future….. a tough paradox by any measure!
If no one can see into the future, most of us go about our everyday lives trying to project a logical course for each of our present realities reaching out into the future. Thus in most situations, each new day that dawns is one that meets up with planned anticipation, and, bar accidents of Fate, holds no surprise. This is the cornerstone of each one of our projects for personal and social development (training, job advancement, dating, marriage, family, holidays, retirement, etc)
Whoever fails to plan and organise a predictable future on the basis of logical extrapolation from clear and objective appraisal of present-day realities, is bound to come up with surprises and unending complex adjustments as tomorrow’s projects reveal unplanned and unforeseen obstacles.
The case of Air Seychelles’ November restructuration is a case in point, though, unfortunately, just another in a long and sad history of poor judgement of the Seychelles Government since 1977. This list includes SADECO, SEYCOM, SMB, IDC, Spirit of Koxe, District Council, De-linking, NYS, EDA, FoodPro, …….to the point that SeyGov-bashing has grown into a bore, were it not for the drama arising from broken personal dreams, each poor national judgement brings.

That within the space of a few months, a national airline, albeit a fledgling one like Air Seychelles, could move from a position of re-assuring robust and vibrant growth to one of re-positioning and restructuration, smacks of nothing less than lack of basic planning and perhaps the usual just plain, bad and dumb management.
The strength of any corporate entity often lies in the sum of its staff’s professionalism, integrity and diligence towards meeting both customer satisfaction and market targets as well as ensuring adequate returns on investments for the viability of the company.
The world in which the national airline operated provides few circumstances that cannot be foreseen and planned for in advance. When the writing is on the wall, he is dumb he who looks away.
Perhaps the President would do better to point the finger where it needs to be pointed, singling out the cancerous sore of individual complacency and ‘laissez faire’ that are at odds with the needs of the current airline market goals of pampering the customer, optimising operations on realistic, money-making routes as opposed to the money-drain of National Pride.
It is all very sad that those who had their fingers on Air Seychelles’ corporate reigns, never seemed to have fully grasped the scope of the cut-throat market in which our little carrier was flung! A vision for development, consolidation and investment was perhaps handicapped by cocky and naive over-confidence from those who were brought to manage something for which their only qualification was in being at the self-glorifying receiving end of good old state-orchestrated cronyism! Flying wings do not necessarily make one a competent International Airline Manager / Administrator
We over-reached back in the 1990s when we killed off the links and likes of Air France and British Airways, to better allow our self-inflated egos to fly our Creole Spirit.
We certainly mis-calculated again when we opened our access to three of the current best global-reach airlines, with limitless petro-dollar rich investment coffers!
It should not therefore be a surprise that the strength and aggressiveness of these more robust eagles may be the principal cause of the clipping of feathers from our fledgling’s wings, forcing its undignified withdrawal from the skies. And who would have guessed it? The Captain has been spared the indignity of preparing for this demise!!!