The national airline of the island state is back in the air. But she cannot yet breathe a sigh of relief. Air Mauritius currently flies only once a day from Sir Seewoosagur Ramgoolam International Airport to the neighbouring island of Rodrigues and back. This does not bring in enough money to ensure survival.
Since the end of April, Air Mauritius is in insolvency proceedings. The insolvency administrators are not very hopeful and recently declared that a liquidation of the airline is becoming more and more probable. Also the idea of founding a new airline for the country in the Indian Ocean is already in the air.
Only 8 instead of 13 aircraft
However, the management is making one last attempt to raise money quickly. It put five aircraft up for sale on Tuesday (July, 7). Two Airbus A340-300 (serial number MSN 196/registration 3B-NBD/21 years and MSN 268/3B-NBE/23 years), two A319 (MSN 1592/3B-NBF/19 years and MSN 1936/3B-NBH/17 years) and one A330-200 (MSN 1057/3B-NBL/11 years) are on sale. Interested parties can make offers until August, 11.
Air Mauritius will have eight aircraft remaining after the sale of the five aircraft: three ATR 72, one A330, two A330 Neo, two A350. The airline has leased two further Airbus A350s to South African Airways on a long-term basis. Before the crisis, it served 22 destinations on four continents. Most recently, it counted around 1.7 million passengers per year.
