Air Mauritius to cash in on upturn

Air Mauritius has decided to increase its flight capacity by over 15% in the period spanning April 2010 to March 2011. “We have renewed with growth on many markets which have showed signs of an upturn.

We fully support the Mauritian destination in line with our position as a national carrier. Air Mauritius is closely surveying destinations in order to seize any opportunity as they present themselves,” said Donald Payen, Executive Vice-President of Air Mauritius.

The number of flights to London will increase from three weekly flights to four – one flight on Wednesday, Thursday and two flights on Saturdays. The number of flights during the peak season will increase to five a week from July 19 to September 6.

As from November this year, the airline will operate five weekly flights till the end of March 2011 and the number will double to reach six flights a week during the end-of-year period.

In line with the campaign to cash in on the FIFA World Cup in South Africa, Air Mauriotius has increased the number of seats by 12,000 during the event. The island will as from now have a daily connection to Johannesburg as the number of weekly flights have been increased.

A direct flight will connect Mauritius to Perth in Australia once a week. This will come as boost to the Mauritian expatriate community established there, as previously they had to connect through Sydney.

“The cost of operations of Air Mauritius is still being adversely impacted by high fuel costs and we have to take that into consideration while reviewing destinations. We remain prudent as the uptake is difficult on certain destinations,” said Donald Payen.

After a dismal year in 2009, tourist arrivals have increased by 6.6% during the month of February. This positive performance was mainly led by higher arrivals from the traditional European market. Total arrivals for the month of February reached 72,366.

Some 27,909 tourists from France visited Mauritius in February, a rise of 17.6% over the same month in 2009. The recent figures show that the French market remains the main tourism base for Mauritius.

This better than expected performance follows a year marked by a 6.5% contraction amidst the global economic crisis which resulted into fewer hotel bookings. The hotels had to resort to cut-throat prices and embark on an aggressive marketing campaign to keep their businesses going.

Since the beginning of the year, the island has maintained a good performance with 164,223 tourist arrivals recorded for the months of January and February as compared to 156,483 arrivals for the same months last year.

This represents an increase of 4.9% over the months of January and February 2009. This increase is largely attributed to an increase from the European market with 114,649 arrivals recorded over the past two months.

Tourist arrivals from Reunion Island have also fared much better than expected, with 22,947 visitors recorded representing a 12.9% rise over the period he past two months.

Tourist arrivals from Reunion Island have also fared much better than expected, with 22,947 visitors recorded representing a 12.9% rise over the period.

By Mahesh Bugnath

http://www.newsnow.mu/NewsView.asp?NID=4539