Update on Air Mauritius Durban Route

 Further to last week’s news that Air Mauritius will be introducing flights to Durban, South Africa once again, the airline has announced that the 5th of July will be the start date of this reintroduction. The daily Johannesburg flight will be retained, but as of the 2nd of May, the Johannesburg night flight will fall away. “Despite the fact that our night flights will be suspended during low season periods, we would like to assure all passengers that supplementary midnight flights will be added during peak travel periods, to meet market demand,” said Carla da Silva, Air Mauritius Regional Manager, Southern Africa and Latin America. The current Cape Town schedule remains unchanged. The Durban flight will see an A319 departing at 12h10 and arriving in Mauritius at 18h00, whilst the return flight leaves at 09h00 and will arrive in Durban at 11h20. “During peak periods and holiday seasons, we will introduce additional capacity, to accommodate our partners, and where required, an equipment upgrade will be affected for group travel,” said da Silva. Air Mauritius cancelled the Durban route last year, with only seasonal flights taking place. But, according to the airline, the reintroduction of the route is due to “submissions from the market, government and other stakeholders, which meant that we re-assessed the situation and monitored our peak period flights results”.

Air Mauritius Posts Profit

Air Mauritius posted a net profit of 6.1 million euros for the third quarter (October-December) of the Financial Year 2012 – 2013, which represents an improvement of 9.7 million euros, compared with the same period last year.
The good performances for the second and third quarters made up for the negative results of the first. As a result, Air Mauritius has limited its losses to 3.1 million euros over the last nine months. The results, according to the airline, are a by-product of the recovery plan put in place last year, with regards optimising revenues and reducing operational costs by 13.7 million euros.
 Furthermore, the suspension of some European direct flights was compensated by rebalancing capacity towards emerging markets, namely new hubs like Kuala Lumpur, Johannesburg, Nairobi and Perth. 42,000 additional seats were offered on the non-European destinations in October-December 2012.
This helped to maintain tourist arrivals in Mauritius, while the new network contributed to a 15% growth in arrivals from the Asian and African markets.
Air Mauritius says it will continue to explore the possibility of a strategic partnership that would reinforce financial soundness, facilitate a re-fleeting exercise and provide access to a more diversified network.

Air Mauritius Re-Introduces Durban Festive Flights

After declaring the closure of the Durban route, as of 28 October, Air Mauritius has announced that the national carrier will re-introduce flights to the KwaZulu-Natal, South Africa market, for the festive season, spanning 21 December 2012 – 13 January 2013.
 A319 aircraft will be used to service this market. So, from 28 October, Air Mauritius will operate 10 weekly flights out of Johannesburg, and additional supplementary capacity during peak holiday season. Also from 28 October, Cape Town flight capacity will also be simultaneous boosted with three flights direct to Mauritius, return, per week.
Furthermore, and also effective as of 28 October, Air Mauritius will offer network connectivity within six hours to all destinations, beyond Mauritius. These include competitive rates offered via international routes inclusive of: Australia, Malaysia, Singapore, London, Paris, India, China, Reunion, Kenya, Madagascar and more.

New Website for Air Mauritius

The website has been entirely revamped and the plan is to rejuvenate the airline's image and boost sales, while providing a high-quality window to promote Mauritius.

 The website is very user-friendly, and navigation is intuitive between the various sections showing online services such as Internet check-in, manage your Kestrelflyer account, real time flight schedules, as well as contents on special offers, useful travel information, ground and in-flight services, baggage, etc., while retaining a special section for booking tickets, which users can access from any page.

Air Mauritius Changes

Air Mauritius has embarked on seven-step plan to recovery and long-term sustainability. The first step of the new business model, network optimisation, has already been implemented for the current financial year.

 The overall effect is a three percent increase in capacity, with a rebalancing of growth on short and medium-haul flights – mainly around the Indian Ocean rim, as well as emerging markets.

From 29 October Air Mauritius will operate ten weekly flights out of Johannesburg, and additional supplementary capacity during peak holiday season.

 There will also be increased frequencies direct from Cape Town to Mauritius and that route will be boosted by the addition of wide-bodied aircraft, and three flights direct to Mauritius, return, per week. Also from 29 October, Air Mauritius will offer connection to all destinations, beyond Mauritius, including Australia, Malaysia, Singapore, London, Paris, India, China, Reunion, Kenya and Madagascar. The following destinations have been retained and will be reinforced: Paris, London, Mumbai, Delhi, Chennai, Bangalore, Kuala Lumpur, Singapore, Hong Kong, Shanghai, Perth, Johannesburg, Cape Town, Nairobi, Antananarivo, St Denis, St Pierre and Rodrigues.