Air Mauritius goes into administration

Air Mauritius has become the second airline to enter voluntarily administration proceedings in as many days . On Tuesday our very own Australian airline Virgin Australia entered voluntary administration caused by the current crisis. It looks as though other airlines, including Korean Air, could also suffer similar fates before the crisis is over. The future isn’t looking too rosy for South African Airways either, who lease two of Air Mauritius’ Airbus A350s. The airline has now been cut off from government support.  The Air Mauritius board came to a decision following “a complete erosion of the company’s revenue base.”. This action has been taken to safeguard the airline, given the current situation. Grant Thornton have been appointed as the airline’s administrators. The administration proceedings have come as a direct result of the current situation being faced by the aviation industry as a whole. In its letter, the airline stated that its entire revenue base had been eroded. The erosion has been caused by a decrease in demand tied to many different travel bans enacted by separate national governments. Despite an improved performance for the three months ending December 2019 which helped reduces losses, Air Mauritius still posted a net loss of €14.9 million ($16.2 million) at the nine-month stage in its most recent financial results. Even before the coronavirus impact, the airline had flagged challenges around “fierce competition” as well as currency and fuel price volatility. It was against this backdrop the carrier was developing its new economic model, which it had hoped to implement in April. The airline believes that demand will not begin to return until the end of 2020.
Air Mauritius’s current fleet consists of 13 aircraft:

• 3x ATRs;
• 2x Airbus A319;
• 4x Airbus A330;
• 2x Airbus A340;
• 2x Airbus A350s.

Air Mauritius is the flag carrier airline of Mauritius. The airline is headquartered in Port Louis, Mauritius. Its main hub is Sir Seewoosagur Ramgoolam International Airport.
The company was set up on the14th June 1967 (1967-06-14) by Air France, the BOAC enterprise, and the Government of Mauritius, with a 27.5% stake each; the balance was held by Rogers and Co. Ltd the general sales agent for Air France and BOAC in Mauritius. In the beginning, the carrier operated international services in conjunction with Air France, Air India and British Airways, which jointly had a 25% holding in Air Mauritius at that time. Until 1972, the company restricted its activities to ground services only; it started flight operations in its own right in August 1972 with a six-seater Piper PA-31 Navajo aircraft leased from Air Madagascar, connecting Mauritius with Rodrigues. The aircraft wore an Air Mauritius décor, but kept a Malagasy registration.