JOHANNESBURG – SOUTH African Airways (SAA) has added capacity on its Mauritius route, with the introduction of a bigger aircraft to the popular and growing destination.

Effective 1 October 2016, the airline will use an Airbus A330-200 aircraft on the route, which adds extra capacity of 200 seats per week and offers customers an improved in-flight product. This aircraft will operate flights SA190/SA191 on Mondays, Wednesdays, and Saturdays to cater for the increase in demand to the island destination.

SAA has been flying to Mauritius for more than 50 years, non-stop since 1957, and the route was one of SAA’s first African destinations.

Mauritius ranks as one of the top performers when it comes to growth and revenue earning.

“The Mauritius route is going from strength to strength and we still experience growing demand, both from the continent and internationally. Mauritius is a popular destination for many South Africans with more than 100, 000 passengers travelling there every year,” says Menon Ramasawmy, SAA Manager Mauritius and Indian Ocean Islands.

He says improving the product offering on this route holds strategic commercial value for the business and forms part of the impetus of the airline’s Long-Term Turnaround Strategy (LTTS).

Mauritius remains one of the fastest growing economies on the continent with consistent demand-side growth in both business and leisure travel.

Load factors on the route continue to perform positively with growing trade and economic development driving business travel outside of traditional seasonal leisure trips.

– CAJ News