A flood of extra airline capacity is being added to Mauritius before the end of the year. These extra seats and a general improvement in consumer confidence should help to drive business over December and encourage more forward bookings for travel in 2022.
Indian Ocean Island specialists have welcomed the introduction of daily flight from Johannesburg by Air Mauritius from November 1 and the start of a twice-weekly service on the route by SAA from November 21; see here.
While MK and SAA’s extra flights reflect pent-up demand from the South African market, there is still capacity at South Africans’ favourite resort hotels to cater for last-minute requests for travel over the peak summer holidays.
Sue Garrett, GM Supply, Pricing & Marketing at Flight Centre SA, said 62% of existing Mauritius bookings were for travel in October, but 42% were for December. “There has been a massive spike for December, which we have been monitoring closely. Everyone was holding on to see. The possibility of a fourth wave had made people a little nervous.”
From an accommodation point of view, Garrett said: “Our ground handler says there is still a lot of availability. For European markets that compete with the South African market, the only period that is really a peak for them is between Christmas and New Year. That week is always touch and go, and usually more expensive because that is when the Europeans travel, but for December 11-14, when our schools break up, there is still a lot of availability, and also from January 4, 2022.
“The feeling is that there is pent-up demand, and people haven’t been spending, but they are now keen to get out. We’re seeing a lot of bookings coming through,” said Garrett.
Confident
Thompsons Holidays CEO, Joanne Adolphe, said demand was certainly returning to pre-COVID levels. “The SAA flights bring additional seat capacity at a time when demand is high, not just for December but well into the new year.”
Thompsons has accommodation across Mauritius, ranging from three- to five-star, including self-catering. Adolphe added: “All our partners in Mauritius have stringent COVID protocols for the protection of our mutual customers.
“Lead times have varied. We saw an immediate rush by customers to make use of their passports to travel again, which resulted in a very short lead time. Now we see people starting to get into 2022 planning mode,” said Adolphe.
Beachcomber Tours Sales & Marketing Director, Joanne Visagie, was also delighted about the flight changes, and said there had been a huge shortfall of airline seat capacity for “incredible demand” for travel in December.
Availability at Beachcomber’s popular resort properties was also not an issue, said Visagie, adding that accommodation could be changed to another Beachcomber resort property if necessary.
“Many clients book in advance for their Mauritius holidays, but this year has been different due to COVID-19. There were minimal seats available, hence few clients could get confirmed bookings. It’s a much later booking period this year. We believe this will go back to normal next year, when there will be early bookers for the school-holiday periods, but also many last-minute bookings.”
Meanwhile, SAA Interim CEO, Thomas Kgokolo, has made it clear that the new national carrier sees potential on the route. Confident that ticket uptake would be strong ahead of the December peak, Kgokolo also identified strong tourism and business ties between South Africa and Mauritius.
“Part of SAA’s strategy is to identify routes where there is demand and which can be profitable to the carrier. The resumption of services to Mauritius meets both those criteria,” he said.
SAA’s new service is scheduled to operate from November 21 on Wednesdays and Sundays, departing from Johannesburg at 09h45, with the return flight departing Mauritius at 15h45.
BA Comair has also scheduled more capacity over the summer peak, adding a third weekly flight on a Thursday (to its Tuesday and Saturday flights). All three flights to start from November 30. See details here.
FlySafair will launch its twice-weekly first international flights to the island on Tuesdays and Saturdays, from December 11. See here.
Early visitor stats
The Mauritius Tourism Promotion Authority (MTPA) said the destination’s reopening was going “very well”, with 2 453 passengers from South Africa arriving on the island October 1-18. Over the two-and-a-half week period, 34 961 passenger entries were recorded in total.
The MTPA said hotel partners were happy with the bookings, which were expected to increase in November and peak in December. “Passengers are going through the Covid-19 safety protocol at the airport and at the hotels with no issues,” said the organisation.
