KENYA: Kenya Airways To Commence Flights To Mauritius

Kenya Airways will this June begin flying four times a week to Mauritius, giving customers wishing to travel the route more options.

The national carrier said that the new flights will also set it up to take advantage of traffic between the United States and Mauritius, a popular destination for Western tourists, once it launches direct flights to New York in October.

Nairobi-Mauritius route will have a great impact on Kenya Airways upcoming direct non-stop flights to New York by reinforcing its attractiveness to American premium leisure travellers, the airline said in a statement Tuesday.

Kenya Airways will fly on Monday, Wednesday, Thursday and Saturday to the Indian Ocean archipelago.

The carrier already has a pre-existing code sharing agreement with Air Mauritius, which flies between Port Louis and Nairobi on the other days of the week.

This will mean that passengers from Kenya will from June have the option of flying daily to Mauritius.

Kenya Airways and Air Mauritius have extended their codeshare agreement to offer their customers more connections at their hubs in Nairobi and Port Louis.

The two airlines already have a longstanding code-share agreement where Air Mauritius uses Nairobi as a hub to connect to destinations in eastern and central Africa.

Kenya Airways similarly uses Mauritius to connect to Air Mauritius networks.

The networks of both our airlines are complementary and we are confident that this agreement will allow us find the synergies for us to grow our respective networks. said KQ’s group chief executive Sebastian Mikosz.

The airline on Tuesday sent 115 of its engineers and technicians on compulsory leave, following a High Court order on Monday requiring their immediate reinstatement after nearly a month in the cold.


Tourism Observer

NETHERLANDS: Stay Alert, Dutch Tourists In Turkey Warned

The Netherlands has issued a travel warning for Turkey amid a growing row between the two countries. Meanwhile, Ankara has summoned the Dutch envoy, claiming a Turkish minister and hundreds of demonstrators were subject to “bad treatment” by authorities.

The Dutch Foreign Ministry released the updated advisory on Monday, warning citizens to be careful when visiting Turkey.

“Since March 11, 2017 there have been diplomatic tensions between Turkey and The Netherlands. Stay alert across the whole of Turkey and avoid gatherings and crowded places,” the ministry said in its warning.

It went on to warn that there is a safety risk when traveling to Turkey, adding that Dutch citizens should register with the ministry ahead of travel.

The Turkish tourism sector is already suffering following last year’s attempted military coup and a number of terrorist attacks. Visits from Dutch citizens saw a 30 percent drop last year.

FlyBe airline has announced it will be expanding its seasonal summer service on its London City-Amsterdam route.

It is currently operating this route only on weekends, however, beginning March 27, the airline will begin service on weekdays with 7 weekly flights overall.

Flybe is the largest independent regional airline in Europe. It is based in Exeter, and operates more UK domestic flights than any other airline. Its hubs are located at Manchester Airport and Birmingham Airport.

In January 2017, the airline was rated as the best UK airline for punctuality and the sixth worldwide in the 2016 OAG Punctuality League report.

The Air Lease Corporation will provide two Airbus A330-900NEO’s on a long term lease to Air Mauritius with delivery dates set for September and October next year, when two ageing Airbus A340’s will be retired from the airline’s fleet.

The new widebody jets will be powered by Rolls Royce Trent 7000 engines and offer passengers a dual class cabin layout with 28 flatbed business class seats and 263 new generation economy class seats. The airline has opted not to include a premium economy class section at this stage as this value added option is gaining traction now among the world’s leading airlines.

Air Mauritius also has orders for the Airbus A350XWB pending with the first two of these state of the art aircraft due for delivery in 2019 but rescheduled the dates for two more from 2020 to a provisional 2023.

The airline is also embarking on retrofitting the existing long haul fleet of two Airbus A330-200 and six Airbus A340’s with new seats, a new entertainment system and notably WiFi on board.

Meanwhile will Amsterdam become a year round destination for Mauritius as KLM has announced a code shared flight, KL501, to operate every Monday, Thursday and Saturday, using a brand new Boeing B787-9 as of 30th of October this year. The aircraft will be offering a three class layout for passengers with 30 flatbed Business Class seats, 45 Comfort Economy seats and 219 standard Economy Class seats.

The summer schedule flights, as of 26th of March 2018, will be operated by Air Mauritius using an Airbus A340 on the route every Monday and Friday with a third service added for the months of August and October.

MAURITIUS: Air Mauritius Searches For New CEO

After removing the former CEO Megh Pillay during a turbulent board meeting at the end of October, Mauritius Airlines I searching for a new CEO.

While Mr. Raja Buton, who had previously acted as CEO, was brought back into the hot seat for the time being to hold fort, and to satisfy regulatory requirements as an acceptable accountable manager for the Mauritius CAA, is reportedly a head hunt now underway to find a permanent solution.

Pillay only served for eight months in the job but reportedly locked horns once too often with key members of the Board of Directors, eventually rendering his position untenable when a properly constituted meeting then decided to hand him the sack.

Pillay is another one of former CEO's of Air Mauritius falling foul of the power that be, including Andre Viljoen, who rose to the position after joining Air Mauritius from South African Airways initially as CFO in 2009.

Initially elevated to Acting CEO and eventually confirmed in the job was Viljoen credited for putting into place a harsh cost cutting programme which saw routes axed and aged aircraft lined up for replacement besides other austerity measures.

Viljoen in October last year did not return to Mauritius from his scheduled leave and is now working at Fiji Airways, after a number of allegations were made against him, none proven however in a court of law.

It is understood that there are plenty of applicants but few of the industry's top names, considering the history of Board / CEO relations in the past almost entirely understandable.

A decision by the company on the recruitment of a new CEO is expected to be made public in early 2017.

Air Mauritius Adds New Direct Flight To China

Air Mauritius is launching a direct flight to China's business and industrial centre of Guangzhou on 12 July 2016. This will be the airline's fifth direct route to the country, continuing its development of the Chinese market, which has recorded a growth rate of 77% since the start of operations to this market.

This new direct flight offered by Air Mauritius will additionally benefit passengers from the South West Indian Ocean region, as well as the South and East Africa region, to travel to Guangzhou, by using Mauritius as a hub.

Air Mauritius’ new operations within the Chinese market has played a major role in sustaining Chinese tourist arrivals in Mauritius. Previously, Hong Kong was the only Chinese destination served by the national carrier. As the airline introduced news services to Shanghai, Beijing and Chengdu successively, the number of passengers carried increased from 67,000 in Financial Year 2011/2012 to 155,555 in Financial Year 2015/2016. Air Mauritius carried an additional 17,000 passengers in 2015/2016 compared to 2014/2015, which confirms the growth trend observed in the Chinese market.

With the launch of Guangzhou and one additional flight to Shanghai, to be introduced in July, Air Mauritius will operate a total of eight weekly flights to China, namely to Chengdu, Hong Kong, Shanghai and Guangzhou.

MAURITIUS: Air Mauritius Making Profits

From a loss of nearly 24 million Euros for the financial year 2014/15 has Air Mauritius now emerged profitable again after ending their 2015/16 financial year with a healthy surplus of nearly 15.5 million Euros. This represents a swing of fortunes over the past year of just under 50 million, to a large part influenced by the significantly lower cost of fuel.

Sources from Mauritius however were swift to point out that the profit should perhaps have been three times as much, dragged down by fuel hedging into the wrong direction and the change of exchange rates between the US Dollar and the Euro, the currency in which Air Mauritius expresses its financial data.

Cost cutting measure also contributed to the black figures on the bottom line and will continue to make an impact in the current financial year.

Passenger numbers are said to have risen by 9.4 percent, three times as much as the capacity increase provided over the past year, and driven mainly by the Chinese market towards which the airline shifted much focus last year.

Now operating already flights to four Chinese destinations, Beijing, Shanghai, Hong Kong and Chengdu will Air Mauritius launch flights to Guangzhou next month.

Equally successful proved the flights to Singapore and on to Kuala Lumpur, as Mauritius aims to establish itself as a convenient springboard for traffic from Asia to Africa where Dar es Salaam, as reported here at the time, was added to the network a few weeks ago, as was Maputo.