MADAGASCAR: Air Austral And Air Madagascar In Codeshare Deal

The new Air Austral and Air Madagascar strategic partnership is being seen as a move for a new force in the Indian Ocean.

It was on the 30th November of last year that Air Austral entered into a partnership with Air Madagascar with 409% shares.

In the arena when competition has been intensifying on the run Paris - La Reunion, Air Austral has been developing a strategy of diversification to be better positioned as the leader on the Indian Ocean Route.

With this partnership Air Austral is planning to reinforce its regional network with added services to new Madagascar airports and will be able to offer a more comprehensive network in the Indian Ocean with flights programmed to Mauritius, Seychelles, Mayotte over and above Madagascar.

Congratulations to Air Austral and Air Madagascar in this consolidation of resources.

The Indian Ocean Vanilla Islands is in need of better air connectivity to be able to continue the development of two or three island holiday packages for key tourism source markets.

Air Austral is a French airline with its headquarters at Roland Garros Airport in Sainte-Marie, Reunion, France.

The airline's main base of flight operations is Roland Garros Airport.

It operates scheduled services from Reunion to metropolitan France, South Africa, Thailand, India and a number of destinations in the Indian Ocean. The company has 900 employees.

Air Austral was created in December 1974 by local businessman Gerard Etheve. It was Reunion's first commercial airline, known as Reunion Air Services (RAS).

By August 1977 RAS had started regional services from Sainte-Marie to Mayotte with a 32-seat Hawker Siddeley HS 748 turboprop.

RAS became Air Reunion in December, 1986.

In October 1990 Sematra, a company 46% owned by the local councils of Reunion with the remaining shares owned by banks and other private partners, purchased Air Reunion. A month later, Air Reunion became Air Austral.

Two months later, Air Austral bought its first Boeing 737-500. Another 737-300 was acquired in 1994, and in 1997 the airline purchased a 737-300QC, which enabled both passenger and cargo only traffic.

In 2000 the airline took delivery of an ATR 72-500, a short-haul turboprop.

By then, Air Austral operated from both Roland Garros Airport in Sainte-Marie and Pierrefonds Airport in Saint Pierre with scheduled services to Mayotte, Johannesburg, South Africa, Comoros, Mauritius, the Seychelles, and three destinations in Madagascar Antananarivo, Tamatave, Nosy Be, Majunga.

In 2003, Air Austral launched its first long-haul service between Reunion and Paris, with two Boeing 777-200ERs.

The two Boeing 777s were joined by a third Boeing 777-200ER in 2005. A second long-haul route from Reunion to Marseille and Lyon was established.

In 2007, a third long-haul service to Toulouse via Marseille started. In 2008, the airline introduced new uniforms for staff and crew members, designed by Balenciaga.

The second ATR 72-500 was added to the fleet, followed by a third a few months later. In April 2009, Air Austral started a new service to Sydney and New Caledonia, thus opening up a new route between Paris and Sydney via Reunion.

The airline also acquired two Boeing 777-300ERs. In November, it placed a firm order for two all-economy class 840-seat Airbus A380s, for delivery in 2014.

These are intended for Air Austral's Reunion-Paris flights. In June 2010, it was announced that Air Austral would start scheduled flights from Reunion to Bordeaux and Nantes from February 2011.

In August 2011, Air Austral received its first Boeing 777-200LR. In April 2012, founder and chief executive Gerard Etheve was replaced by Marie-Joseph Male following financial difficulties caused by risky business decisions made worse by high fuel prices.

Non-profitable lines to Noumea, Sydney, Marseille, Bordeaux, Nantes, Toulouse and Lyon were closed.

The company has since returned to profit. Also in April 2012, Air Austral was unable to pay for a new 777-200LR awaiting delivery.

The company was looking to sell on the plane instead of taking delivery. Following this development, Air Austral announced in May 2012 that it would defer or cancel its order for 2 Airbus A380s, with a decision to be made by the end of June 2012.

In June 2013, Air Austral introduced direct flights to Chennai, India with its new Boeing 737-800s.

In February 2015, the company announced an order for two Boeing 787-8s, to be delivered in May and October 2016 respectively.

In March 2015, it also announced the lease of 2 more B777-300ER from Air Lease Corporation (ALC). These aircraft, delivered in late 2016, replaced the oldest two models of the same type then operated by Air Austral.

In October 2015, the company announced the sale of its single Boeing 777-200LR to Florida-based broker Atlas Aviation in November 2015.

Air Austral simultaneously announced the lease, from November 2015 to May 2016 of a Boeing 737-300QC (QC for quick change) from ASL Airlines France formerly Europe Airpost.

The plane involved was F-ODZZ, a convertible version of the 737-300 the cabin configuration can be changed from passengers to freight, that had actually already been in Air Austral service between 1997 and 2005.

It was used until the first of the two Boeing 787-8s ordered by the company was delivered in May 2015.

Societe Nationale Malgache de Transports Aeriens, Societe Anonyme, operating as Air Madagascar, is an airline based in Antananarivo, Madagascar.

It is the national airline of Madagascar operating services to Europe, Asia and neighbouring African and Indian Ocean island destinations, from its main base, Ivato International Airport in Antananarivo.

It also operates an extensive domestic network.

The airline was formed in 1947 to feed into flights by Transports Aeriens Intercontinentaux and Air France, and upon the independence of Madagascar, it became the national airline.

Initially operating services on domestic routes, the airline saw expansion in the late 1960s and 1970s, when it began international flights to destinations such as France and South Africa.

In recent years the airline has been a subject of failed privatisation measures.

These are now on hold and the airline is majority owned by the Madagascar government.

Air Madagascar has codeshare agreements with the following airlines:

- Air Austral

- Air Mauritius

- Etihad Airways

- Thai Airways

During the mid-2000s, Air Madagascar was looking to renew their fleet. The two ageing Boeing 737-200 which had an average age of 36.7 years, were scrapped in 2006 and replaced by more modern Boeing 737-300.

The airline then replaced its four Boeing 767-300ER and one Boeing 767-200ER with a Boeing 777-200ER.

The middle-age 777, though, was replaced with two Airbus A340-300 wet-leased from Air France from March 2012 till 2018 when a replacement aircraft is required,the wet leases have since been converted to one damp lease and one sublease of an operating lease.


Tourism Observer

REUNION: Germany Travel Agents Visit Reunion

Five tour operators and travel agencies coming from Germany, Austria and Luxembourg were part of this latest eductour in Reunion for six days. Accompanied by the person responsible for IRT's marketing and promotion in German speaking countries, Ms. Larissa Metke, the sales representative of Air Austral in Germany Ms. Katharina Essmann and by the sales representative of Lux * Hotels for Germany, Austria and Eastern Europe Mr. Manuel Schirmer, the tourism professionals have been able to live the Reunion Experience through a journey of discovery.

It is a wide range of tourist offer of the destination meeting the German group of professionals could discover with, the program

The visitors were given a wide range of tourism offerings to sample and experience, among them a visit to the market of St. Paul, the discovery of Salazie, a hike in the heart of Mafate followed by a picnic, the excursion to the Piton de la Fournaise, Reunion's highly active volcano, the helicopter flights over the island, the visit of a vanilla plantation , a culinary workshop experience in Far Far Kréol to discover the flavors of the Reunion gastronomy and so much more.

Through this tour, the objectives of this eductour were many and it was primarily about

Training professionals on their knowledge of the destination;
Increase sales to the destination Reunion;
Supporting the development of market knowledge of German tourism professionals;
Encourage professionals to include the destination in their program and create circuits;
Sustaining relationships with partners in Germany, Austria and Luxembourg;
Developing awareness of the island on the German market in cooperation with tourism professionals.

This eductour was conducted in conjunction with another Vanilla Island, Mauritius and the cooperation resulted in great success. By familiarizing German, Austrian and Luxembourg tourism professionals with the tourism products of the destination Reunion, IRT, short for Ile de la Reunion Tourisme, intends to develop the awareness and sales of the destinations on the German speaking markets.

REUNION: Air Austral Takes Delivery Of Its First Boeing 787-8

Air Austral's first Boeing B787-8 Dreamliner is now enroute from the Boeing facility in Everett, Washington State to Reunion Island and is expected to land in the morning at the Roland Garros International Airport of the capital St. Denis after a 10.500 miles ferry flight.

This first of two such aircraft ordered will help the airline to boost the present fleet of among others B777's and B737-800's and allow for additional long haul flights.

Only two months ago did the airline finally settle with Airbus where it had cancelled an order for the A380 before now taking delivery of one of the world's most advanced airliners.

This French island deep in the Indian Ocean has become one of the world's foremost adventure destinations and, as part of the Vanilla Island organization, forms part of a group of 7 islands seeking to tap into a fast growing cruise / fly and multi island holiday market.

Reunion’s Air Austral has taken delivery of its first Boeing 787-8, becoming the first French operator to take the type.

The Rolls-Royce Trent 1000-powered aircraft is scheduled to land at Roland Garros airport in Saint-Marie, Reunion Island on 25 May.

“The state of the art 787 Dreamliner’s unique capabilities enable us to launch the Dzaoudi to Paris Charles de Gaulle route,” says Marie-Joseph Male, executive chairman and chief executive at Air Austral.

The airline announced an order for two 787-8s in 2015, says Boeing.

Flightglobal’s Fleets Analyzer database shows that the carrier has eight aircraft in service, comprising three Boeing 777-300ERs, three 737s and two ATR 72s.

The airline also apparently cancelled the two Airbus A380s it had on order earlier this year.

REUNION: Air Austral Avoids The A380, Ready For B787-8

Information at hand suggests that Air Austral, the home airline of the French Indian Ocean island of Reunion, will commence B787 Dreamliner operations on the 05th of June with an inaugural service from the island's main airport, Roland Garros International, to mainland France.

This development follows hot on the heels of the formal announcement by Airbus that Air Austral had cancelled the order for two all economy versions of the A380, which were due for delivery in late 2017.

Both aircraft production slots however were swiftly sold on, reportedly to Emirates, similar to the deal when Japan's Skymark A380's were eventually absorbed by parent company ANA.

The introduction of the two B787's solve problems for both Boeing and Air Austral at once.

Air Austral, just at the start of the busy summer season from France, the island's largest market for tourists, will gain much needed capacity and Boeing managed to offload two of the remaining early ' heavy versions' of the B787 Dreamliner, which did not meet the lower weight specs promised to airlines, a problem since then of course resolved.

Ethiopian Airlines had done a similar deal with Boeing to boost their B787 fleet and while losing some payload will both airlines be able to operate out of their hubs to the shorter long haul destinations without any restrictions on passenger numbers.

Reunion's tourism board, IRT, will together with the Seychelles next week host the 06th annual Carnival International de Victoria on the island of Mahe and presently flies twice a week between their capital city of St. Denis and Mahe. IRT has over the past two years pulled out all stops to promote the island and Visa waivers for South Africans, and given certain conditions to be met for Chinese and Indian travelers, have boosted arrival numbers.

The demand has translated into traffic gains by Air Austral where their fleet of ATR 72's, B737-800's and B777-300ER will by the end of May be boosted by two new B787 Dreamliners.