On August 1, the Republic of Seychelles’ flag carrier Air Seychelles took delivery of a first A320neo. CDB Aviation — a wholly owned Irish subsidiary of China Development Bank Financial Leasing Co., Limited (CDB Leasing) — provided the aircraft. The delivery makes Air Seychelles first African airline to operate an Airbus A320neo. The neo addition is expected to enable Air Seychelles to increase the capacity on its Johannesburg and Mumbai routes. The A320neo named “Veuve” and registered as S7-VEV is two-class configured, with 12 seats in Business Class and 156 in Economy Class.

This A320neo jetliner is powered by the new-generation LEAP-1A engine from CFM International. The airline based at the Victoria airport on the island of Mahé intends to use the new aircraft from the month of November for weekly direct flights toward Tel Aviv.

With the addition of 32 new Airbus operators in the African continent since 2010, today 243 Airbus aircraft are flown by African airlines, out of which 145 aircraft are from the A320 Family.