Air Mauritius

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Air Mauritius

IATA MK ICAO MAU Callsign AIRMAURITIUS
Founded	14 June 1967
Commenced operations	August 1972
Hubs	Sir Seewoosagur Ramgoolam International Airport
Frequent flyer program	KestrelFlyer
Fleet size	15
Destinations	25
Parent company	Air Mauritius Holding Ltd[1]
Headquarters	Port Louis, Mauritius
Key people	Manoj Ujoodha (Executive Director)
Website	http://airmauritius.com

Air Mauritius Limited is the national airline of Mauritius, based in Port Louis, the island's capital. It operates regional and international services to over 30 destinations with 80 flights per week. Its main base is Sir Seewoosagur Ramgoolam International Airport, Mauritius^[2].

The airline has the phaeton rubicola or Paille-en-Queue, a fish-eating tropical bird, for its symbol.

[edit] History

Air Mauritius was established on 14 June 1967 by Amédée Maingard initially as a handling agent. It modestly started airline operations in August 1972 with a six seater Piper PA-31 Navajo aircraft leased from Air Madagascar on a flight from Mauritius to Rodrigues Island.

International operations started in 1977 using a wet leased Boeing 707 from British Airtours^[2].

During the 1970s and 1980s, the airline operated Boeing 707s and Boeing 747s, in their SP configuration (SP meaning Special Performance), on longer routes. All the 747s have been decommissioned since and have been replaced by the Airbus A340s as from 1994, with Boeing 767s introduced in 1988, ATR 42s introduced in 1987, an ATR 72 introduced in 2002 for inter-island routes and Airbus A319s for regional flights on the African continent. Air Mauritius was the first airline of the southern hemisphere to fly the A340. As a matter of fact in December 2006, the last ever Airbus A340-300 type was built and delivered to Air Mauritius (tail number 3B-NBJ named 'Le Chamarel'). The airline is also one of the few airlines in the world (Aeroflot, British Airways and Air Sahara being among the others) that have combined airplane services with helicopter flights, using the Bell Aircraft Corporation range helicopters. Air Mauritius has a large presence in the European, African and Indian Ocean country airports. The company also performs a range of services in Mauritius for international airlines.

In 1988, one of the two Boeing 767-200ER (tail number 3B-NAL;named the `City of Port Louis`) set a new distance record for commercial twinjets flying from Halifax, Nova Scotia, to Mauritius. Distance flown was 8,727 statute miles (14,042 km). Duration of the flight was 16 hours 27 minutes.

In 1995 the airline was listed on the stock exchange of Mauritius. The airline is owned by Air Mauritius Holding (51%), publicly held (19.97%), Port Louis Fund (6.32%), the State Investment Corporation (4.72%), government of Mauritius (4.53%), Rogers and Company (4.28%), Air France (2.78%) and Air India (2.56%). It employs 2,761 staff (at March 2007)^[2].

Air Mauritius launched its new Airbus A340-300Es to London and Hong Kong in December 2006. In 2007, it retrofited all other Airbus A340-313X in the fleet. Air Mauritius has added two Airbus A330-200s to replace the Boeing 767-200ER in late 2007. It has been noted that since February 2007, the airline has reduced operations using the two Boeing 767-23B(ER)s. Air Mauritius is using its A340-300s on these routes until delivery of the two A330-200(twinjet) which will be used to operate flights on India, Malaysia, Singapore and Perth routes^{[citation needed]}.

[edit] Destinations

Air Mauritius connects Mauritius with several destinations across Africa, Asia, Europe and Oceania.

[edit] Fleet

Airbus A340-300

Air Mauritius fleet consists of the following aircraft (as of 18 November 2009)^[3]:

For a small population of about 1.2 million in Mauritius, Air Mauritius is generally considered as being a rather big intercontinental airline. In March 2007, Air Mauritius became the first southern African country airline to fly an all-Airbus fleet for long and medium haul routes.

[edit] References

[edit] External links

• Official website
• Air Mauritius Jet Fleet Detail