Air Mauritius pilots on unpaid leave to be reinstated

Eighteen pilots of Air Mauritius, who had been on forced unpaid leave, can get back to their seats as from November 1.

Three representatives of the group, Umayr Beeharry, Rahul Koolwant and Deepcy Bungshy, were told by Prime Minister Pravind Jugnauth that their five-year unpaid leave was being annulled.

This had been imposed by Administrators of the national airline, Sattar Hajee Abdoula and Arvind Gokhool, after the sale of four planes (A319 and A340).

After a watershed meeting earlier this week, creditors opted to exit administration after their airline secured a Rs12 billion State support.

While meeting Jugnauth and newly-appointed Chief Executive of Airport Holdings Ltd, Ken Arian, the pilots were also told they would now be trained to fly larger A330 planes.