Air Seychelles, the national carrier of Seychelles, and a member of Etihad Airways Partners is planning to lay off 174 staff as the airline undergoes restructuring, as per the Seychelles News Agency.

In February 2012, Etihad Airways invested US$45 million in Air Seychelles for a 40 percent share in the airline following problems of management and profitability.

The airline currently has over 800 staff across 13 departments, and mostly the cuts will come in the cabin crew department.

Like we all know that Air Seychelles is cutting down on various long-haul services by the end of this month. Hence, these cuts will come to the fore. The carrier had announced earlier about the termination of their long-haul service to Paris CDG on April 28. They have already returned one of their A330-200 (originally from Jet Airways), and the second one will go away in May as well.The carrier used to fly to  Dusseldorf and Durban last year with the second A330-200.

Air Seychelles will continue to fly regionally with 2 Airbus A320s. Two returned Airbus A330s will be leased to Fiji Airlines, and another one will be wet-leased to Etihad Airways.

To me, this seems the end of the Etihad Airways Partners

It is regrettable that we see this small carrier shrink even further in spite of the Etihad Airways intervention, which does not seem to have worked very well for any carrier they touched. Let’s hope they come out of this alive and well!