Late on Friday afternoon, July 30, Air Mauritius announced that the much-anticipated return of its flights to South Africa would take place on October 1. Operators and agents are thrilled by the news, reporting that bookings have already started streaming in for the popular island destination.
Based on feedback from operators based on GDS flight displays, Travel News understands that Air Mauritius will initially launch a once-weekly flight between Johannesburg and Mauritius commencing on October 1. MK852 will depart on Fridays from OR Tambo at 13h35, arriving in Mauritius at 19h35. MK851 will depart from Mauritius at 09h15 on the same day, arriving in Johannesburg at 11h50. No flight schedules are reflecting on the airline’s Cape Town to Mauritius or Durban to Mauritius routes at this stage.
The Mauritius Tourism Promotion Authority (MTPA) released a statement last month confirming that the island still intended to reopen its borders by October 1. “Phase Two of the reopening, which takes place on October 1, will allow vaccinated travellers to enter Mauritius without restrictions upon presentation of a negative PCR test taken within 72 hours of departure,” advised MTPA.
However, there has been some uncertainty about whether the island will allow vaccinated South Africans to enter on this date, due to an ongoing ban on travel from South Africa, which the Mauritius government has been extending on a monthly basis, reportedly due to South Africa’s slow vaccine roll-out. However, agents and operators continue to express their confidence that the travel ban will be lifted before October 1 and that South Africans will once again be able to return to their favourite island.
“Not only is Mauritius still on track to achieve herd immunity in the country by the end of September but South Africa is steaming ahead with its vaccination roll-out now. The opening of South Africa’s vaccination programme to the 18- to 35-year-old group next month means that anyone who wants to get vaccinated can now do so, which will be the key to reopening the world to these travellers,” said Beachcomber md, Terry Munro.
Terry reported that demand had picked up nicely this week, that a lot of land-only bookings were pouring in and that Beachcomber was now in a position to start selling flights again. Beachcomber is currently offering a reopening special, which offers guests a 40% discount on accommodation and meals at most of its resorts. “This is a never-to-be-repeated offer and a no brainer for anyone wanting to visit Mauritius, as guests can hold on to the discount even if they choose to move their booking to another date later on,” explained Terry.
“The reintroduction of Air Mauritius flights from October 1 has brought renewed hope of travel from that date. We will be booking flights again,” commented md of World Leisure Holidays, Ramesh Jeenarain.
Linda Balme, Travelstart’s senior commercial manager, said she was extremely excited about the reinstatement of Air Mauritius flights. “We have already started promoting the flights on social media and bookings started coming through fast and furious over the weekend.”
Other airlines?
Other carriers are taking a more cautious approach to the island’s reopening to South Africans and are yet to announce a start date for their Mauritius services. Comair’s executive manager: sales, marketing and distribution, Brian Kitchin, told Travel News that Comair had not made a final call on the Mauritius route yet.
“We want to wait and see how things unfold with both the Mauritian regulations and South Africa’s vaccine roll-out before we commit to a start date,” said FlySafair’s chief marketing officer, Kirby Gordon. FlySafair has rights for two flights a week between South Africa and Mauritius.
CemAir ceo, Miles van der Molen, has also expressed some interest in flying to Mauritius, and says the carrier has the right equipment to do so.
