Air Mauritius will axe its Sydney and Melbourne services as part of a major cost saving plan on the back of massive losses in the third quarter.
Its weekly services from Sydney and Melbourne will be suspended from May 29/30, with an additional frequency from Perth to be added from June 5/6, taking the A330 service to twice weekly.
The carrier hopes to add a third weekly service “sooner rather than later”.
Air Mauritius Australia manager Steven Palombo stressed the decision had nothing to do with the success of the routes, which he said had been performing well in recent months.
“It’s a drastic decision made by the board to stem financial losses driven by rising operating costs,” he told Travel Today, citing fuel as the major factor.
The carrier will now focus on its domestic partnership with Virgin Australia to ensure that East Coast passengers still had access to the service.
Its wholesale partners had been “quite shocked” by the decision, Palombo admitted.
The airline reported losses of 3.2 million Euro (A$3.9 million) for the three months to December against a profit of 12.2 million Euro (A$15 million) in the same period in 2010.
