In a stroke of bad luck, Air Mauritius is currently facing a quarter of its fleet out of service. Three out of its 12 aircrafts are currently unusable, putting significant pressure on the rest of the national aviation company’s fleet.
The good news for the company is that two of these aircraft, an ATR 72-500 and an A350-900, are expected to be back in the air in a few days.
The third aircraft, an A330-200, which broke down in Mumbai, India on February 24th, is set to join the fleet by April 15th.
A replacement engine was found in Turkey after extensive efforts by Air Mauritius engineers. Due to the rarity of Rolls Royce engines for the A330-200 on the market, Air Mauritius had to work extra hard to find a functioning engine.
“The engine will be shipped from Turkey to Mumbai this week. After installation and testing, the aircraft should be able to resume flights by mid-April,” confirmed a source at Air Mauritius.
The A350-900, which had a technical issue at Paris-Charles de Gaulle airport a few days ago, is also set to return to service by the end of this week.
The ATR 72-500 is currently undergoing maintenance, which has taken longer than expected for various reasons, delaying its return to service. “We expect everything to be OK during this week,” explained a source at Paille-en-Queue Building.
The absence of this aircraft has affected flights to Rodrigues, where passengers have faced slight delays in their flights.
It is worth noting that Air Mauritius has three ATR 72-500 and one ATR 72-600 in its fleet, which operate flights to and from Rodrigues and Reunion Island.
As for the aircraft leased from Hi Fly, there were concerns on Friday that it may be out of service for a certain period. However, repairs were carried out to ensure it could continue to operate normally.
This aircraft, an old A340-313, broke down on Sunday, March 24th, but was able to start flying the next day until its service ends on April 15th.
A meeting between the Air Mauritius management and Raj Ramlugun is scheduled for Tuesday.
Ramlugun, one of the few remaining small shareholders of the company, had been requesting a meeting for a long time but had been denied for several years.
Source: Defi Media
