New Port Louis Connection: Air Mauritius Returns to Chennai

After a long hiatus, the Port Louis-based Air Mauritius has finally launched operations to Chennai International Airport. For Chennai, this is one of the few positives for this Summer Schedule as it is currently suffering from mismanagement issues, prompting various airlines to opt their operations out of the airport.

Air Mauritius Back at Chennai

On 12 April, Air Mauritius resumed its flight operations between Port Louis in Mauritius and Chennai in the state of Tamil Nadu, India. The resumption flight was operated by an Airbus A330neo registered as 3B-NBV. From now on, the airline will be operating once a week scheduled flights on this route. The aircraft will depart from Port Louis on Friday and Chennai on Saturday.

Based on the availability, it will deploy the Airbus A330 on this route. Air Mauritius has a fleet of four Airbus A330s comprising 2 A330-200 and 2 Airbus A330-900neo. The older Airbus A330-200s are configured with 18 Business and 236 Economy Class seats. Meanwhile, the newer Airbus A330-900neos flaunts a fantastic onboard product featuring 28 Business and 260 Economy Class seats.

Air Mauritius announced its Chennai service resumption in November 2023. The airline, at the same time, announced an upgrade to its Delhi service from 2X weekly to 3X weekly flights. Now, the whole announcement has been implemented. With this addition, Air Mauritius is now operating 10 times a week in India. This includes 3X weekly to Delhi, 6X to Mumbai, and 1X to Chennai.

The market is Slowly Widening

Air Mauritius is a long-lasting player in the Indian market. The airline has already completed 51 years of Indian operations. Last year, it completed its half-century with the operational launch of the Port Louis to Delhi route. The airline started flying to India in 1972. It flew from Bombay Sahar to Port Louis with the Boeing 707 aircraft. This was the first-ever route for the airline, and hence, it holds great significance.

In March 2023, Vistara joined the party launching flight operations to the beach destination. It started operating non-stop flights between Mumbai and Port Louis with the Airbus A321LR. Both Air Mauritius and Vistara signed an interline agreement to complement the network of each other.

Currently, these two are the only players between India and Mauritius. Vistara operates solely to Mumbai with five times a week flights. On the other hand, Air Mauritius operates 10X weekly to India – 3 to Delhi, 6 to Mumbai, and 1 to Chennai, deploying the widebody Airbus A330 aircraft.

One of the Few Positives for Chennai

Chennai Airport recently lost its entire French Network. From being the only airport in India to be connected to two French cities, Chennai has now lost all French connections. In March 2023, Air Austral withdrew its Chennai to Reunion service. And now, in March 2024, Air France has suspended the non-stop flights between Chennai and Paris. The airline cited network restructuring as the reason behind this.

There is something more. FlyDubai, which launched Dubai services in 2015 is looking to suspend its operations from Chennai and shift the capacity to Kochi International Airport. The airline will do this from mid-May.

Among all the negatives, Air Mauritius’s return and Cathay Pacific’s product upgrading are the only positives for Chennai Airport. It has recently launched its first Self Baggage Drop Facility at Terminal 1. Among the 8 counters, IndiGo has been provided with 4 of them. The airport will soon get the DigiYatra facility as well, enabling faster and hassle-free check-in.

Have you ever traveled with Air Mauritius? How was your experience? Discuss in the comments section.