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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		Sanjay Buckhory (Chairman), Manoj Ujoodha (Executive Director)
Website: http://www.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

^{[citation needed]}

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 All the 747s have been decommissioned since and have been replaced by the Airbus A340s as from 1994, with Boeing 767s introduced in 1988, ATR 42s introduced in 1997, an ATR 72 introduced in 2002 for inter-island routes and Airbus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%), British Airways (3.84%), 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 Heathrow 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

As of April 2008, Air Mauritius operates scheduled services to the following destinations:^[3]

[edit] Fleet

Airbus A340-300

Air Mauritius fleet consists of the following aircraft (at May 2008):

[edit] Retired Fleet

• 1 Piper PA-31 Navajo
• 2 Boeing 707-300
• 2 Boeing 707-400
• 3 Boeing 747 (SP)
• 2 Boeing 767-200ER
• 1 Boeing 767-300ER
• 1 Airbus A340-300
• 2 ATR-42

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] Incidents and Accidents

• On 30 August 2007, an Airbus A340-300 on a flight to Hong Kong suffered severe turbulence roughly half an hour before landing. 20 people, including cabin crew members, were injured and taken to hospital with 18 later discharged.^[4]

• On 24 July 2008, an Airbus A330-200 operating Air Mauritius flight MK745 from New Delhi to Mauritius encountered a bird strike in its CF6 engine number 1 during take off, leading to a fire that in turn forced the captain to suddenly abort take-off. It was reported that 15 of the 241 passengers on board sustained minor injuries. Passengers were immediately directed to skid out of the plane’s emergency exit.^[5]

[edit] External links

• Air Mauritius
• Air Mauritius Jet Fleet Detail

[edit] References