Photos taken by Azhar Rajubally
As of the 22nd of April, the Board Of Directors at Air Mauritius have made the decision to place the airline into voluntary administration. The airline's board came to the decision following ‘a complete erosion of the company’s revenue base’. The airline had been struggling financially before the Covid-19 pandemic and in January 2020 airline management devised a plan to address the financial difficulties of the business model. With the uncertainty around when international air traffic will resume, the airline was left with very limited options.
Therefore, placing the company into administration was the best option in order to safeguard the airline and it's stakeholders. Grant Thornton have been appointed as the administrators.
The airline was originally set up in 1967 as a joint venture between BOAC, Air France and the Mauritian Government. It began operations in 1972 using a Piper PA-31 Navajo connecting Rodrigues with Mauritius. Long haul operations began in 1973 when the airline leased a Vickers VC-10 from British Airways. The airline operated a flight from Mauritius to London, via Nairobi. This was upgraded two years later to a Boeing 707. By April 1980, the airline had 414 employees. This had grown to 2,000 by April 2000.
As of now the airline operates a fleet of 13 aircraft with an average age of 11.3 years, all of which are currently stored. The airline previously had 4 Airbus A350-900 but 2 are currently on lease to South African Airways, an airline in even worse financial trouble. This cannot have helped Air Mauritius in recent months.
Air Mauritius Fleet
REG: TYPE: DELIVERY: AGE
3B-NBF Airbus A319-100 OCT 2001 18.6
3B-NBH Airbus A319-100 MAR 2003 17.2
3B-NBL Airbus A330-200 OCT 2009 10.6
3B-NBM Airbus A330-200 DEC 2007 12.5
3B-NBU Airbus A330-900 APR 2019 1.2
3B-NBV Airbus A330-900 JUN 2019 0.9
3B-NBD Airbus A340-300 OCT 1997 22.6
3B-NBE Airbus A340-300 APR 1999 21.1
3B-NBP Airbus A350-900 OCT 2017 2.6
3B-NBQ Airbus A350-900 NOV 2017 2.5
3B-NBN ATR72 DEC 2010 9.5
3B-NBO ATR72 JUN 2016 9.6
3B-NBG ATR72 JUN 2002 17.9
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