Air Mauritius back to Sydney

Air Mauritius flew into Sydney yesterday for the first time since 2008, when the GFC forced the carrier to trim its Australian operations.

During the 'troubles' the airline maintained one flight a week through Perth to  Melbourne, which has a significant Mauritian population. But with the return to Sydney, there will now be two separate flights each week, one to Sydney and Melbourne and the other just to Perth.

Executive VP Commercial & Communications Donald Payen said in Sydney yesterday that the goal was two flights per week to the eastern capitals as soon as the airline can build its load on the A340-300 to 75 per cent.

Air Mauritius promotes the services to the leisure and MICE markets, as well as through traffic to Africa and Europe. The airline flies double-daily services to Paris.

It currently has a fleet of seven A340s, one A330, two A319s and two ATR72s operating to 25 ports in Europe, Asia, Africa and the Indian Ocean as well as Australia.