Air Mauritius(MK), based in the Indian Ocean island of Mauritius(MRU) is a small carrier with a fleet of about 14 aircrafts and offers more than 2 million seats yearly. It operates flights to Africa, Europe, Asia and Australia and has as main international destinations Paris, Johannesburg and Saint Denis in Reunion island. It is also amomg the very few African carriers which are profitable and is a great contributor to the Mauritian economy since it connects the island to principal markets for Mauritian tourism.
Air Mauritius has as main partners Air France, KLM, South African Airways, China Eastern Airlines, Emirates, Kenya Airways and Air India, giving access to many other destinations via other partner hubs which are Paris and Amsterdam in Europe, while it also serves London(LHR) and Geneva.
MK's CEO recently outlined plans to create an African Alliance with Rwandair, Kenya Airways and South African Airways in order to reduce cost and enjoy economies of scale.
However, it can be noted that Air Mauritius has many agreements with Skyteam members and that particular alliance is the most present one in Mauritius. Air Mauritius has codeshare agreements with Kenya Airways, China Eastern Airlines, Air France and KLM while Alitalia and Saudia also have flights to Mauritius. Air Mauritius is also looking forward for flights to Seoul, a hub for Korean Air, also member of Skyteam and the start of a Moscow-Mauritius service was discussed by Russian and Mauritius authorities in recent discussions between the 2 parties(Either Air Mauritius or Aeroflot would start flights)
So, is Air Mauritius likely to enter Skyteam and also be a member of that African Alliance(like Kenya Airways)?

At least I can say that if Air Mauritius were to join an alliance, it would certainly be SkyTeam.

They are in the Vanilla Alliance.

GlobalAirways wrote:

They are in the Vanilla Alliance.

Vanilla Alliance is not a concrete one, it had been created but it has no purpose at all. Amomg the airlines in the alliance, only Air Austral and Air Madagascar are partners but that's not due to the alliance, it's due to Air Austral having 49% of MD. Air Austral only codeshares MK's route to Perth and Air Madagascar codeshares MK's route to TNR. That's all, the Vanilla Group has not met its goals which was to boost inter-island traffic through an air alliance so as to promote tourism. But I guess that fares of minimum $200 for a 30-min flight(MRU-RUN) don't encourage people to travel at all

3BNBE wrote:

However, it can be noted that Air Mauritius has many agreements with Skyteam members and that particular alliance is the most present one in Mauritius.

So with that in mind... what'd be the point in spending more money to get what they (both MK, and the SkyTeam EU members) already have?

MK would fit more as a "Skyteam Connecting Partner" than a full Skyteam member anyway. But well, ST current doesn't have such option, and I agree with LAX772LR - joining an alliance is a long tedious process that often brings more harm than good for such a small carrier (Ask Tarom...).

Well, that and at max they'll be what UL is for OW, in another word, a token presence in a region (UL for part of South Asia, mainly Southern India via CMB, MK for southern Africa) but otherwise doesn't bring much.

Many operators would be ahead of MK on the list of potential "Skyteam Connecting Partners", e.g., VA, 9W.

MK talk with WB/SA/KQ for a new alliance

https://www.bloomberg.com/news/articles ... m-alliance

3BNBE wrote:

MK's CEO recently outlined plans to create an African Alliance with Rwandair, Kenya Airways and South African Airways in order to reduce cost and enjoy economies of scale.

It would be the best idea!
https://www.airliners.net/forum/viewtopi ... &t=1399275

eastafspot wrote:

It would be the best idea!
viewtopic.php?f=3&t=1399275

As part of this alliance, in order to reduce costs, maybe South African Airways will eliminate non-profitable routes which can be served by other carriers in this alliance. SA's route to Hong Kong for instance could be stopped and all the traffic shifted to Air Mauritius, which would then operate a minimum of 5 weekly flights with a schedule allowing for short connections to and from South Africa, Kenya and other destinations. Mauritius is a big destination for South African Airways, with up to 11 weekly flights(7 A340-600 and 4 A330-300/A340-300) during the month of December and a daily flight all year long operated by wide-body aircrafts between JNB and MRU. Air Mauritius is also present in Johannesburg, Cape Town and Durban. Air Mauritius should however consider re-introducing night flights year-long to JNB to provide two-way convenient travel time for those travelling between Asia and Africa(starting with JNB). It was also stated by a SA official that Durban-Bangalore route was one with great potential, and Air Mauritius can well benefit from that.
Air Mauritius flights to Bangalore make a stop at Chennai on the return leg. Actually, 1 weekly flight is operated(due to delivery delays of MK's A330-900) but normally 2 weekly flights are operated. If MK operates 1 weekly flight to Chennai and Bangalore individually, taking into account that the Bangalore flights leave on Monday at 21 05, while Durban flights arrive in Mauritius at 18 10(reasonable 1h55min layover) and Bangalore-Mauritius flights with no stop at Chennai could arrive at about 11 00 the next day, while Mumbai flights arrive at 11 15, a Durban flight could leave Mauritius at 12 15, reaching the South African city at 14 35, leaving DUR at 15 50 and arriving in MRU at 21 50. On Tuesdays, Air Mauritius also have flights to Perth and Shanghai after 10 p.m. and thus short layovers will be available for those willing to connect to those 2 destinations, allowing for loads to be high enough to render the flights profitable.

Maybe a connect member, given Skyteam’s friendliness to small airlines.
Still,it is unrealistic to demand it to be a full member.
One of the smallest recent (full) member of any alliances is RAM. That is over 50 planes in fleet, not 14. Obviously, MK is scaling more similarly to Fiji Airways, an OW connect member.

B1168 wrote:

Maybe a connect member, given Skyteam’s friendliness to small airlines.
Still,it is unrealistic to demand it to be a full member.
One of the smallest recent (full) member of any alliances is RAM. That is over 50 planes in fleet, not 14. Obviously, MK is scaling more similarly to Fiji Airways, an OW connect member.

Adria is the smallest airline in an alliance I believe, with only 18 planes and the largest planes being A319, but of course, they're only in *A due to Lufthansa.

And you realize that RAM (at 57 planes) is larger than KQ (at 40 planes), right? Also, UL and RJ are both in OW, and both has only half the fleet size (around 25 planes) compare to RAM.

WPvsMW wrote:

Many operators would be ahead of MK on the list of potential "Skyteam Connecting Partners", e.g., VA, 9W.

Both VA and 9W might just as well join as full member rather than "Connecting Partners" IMO.

3BNBE wrote:

eastafspot wrote:

It would be the best idea!
viewtopic.php?f=3&t=1399275

As part of this alliance, in order to reduce costs, maybe South African Airways will eliminate non-profitable routes which can be served by other carriers in this alliance. SA's route to Hong Kong for instance could be stopped and all the traffic shifted to Air Mauritius, which would then operate a minimum of 5 weekly flights with a schedule allowing for short connections to and from South Africa, Kenya and other destinations. Mauritius is a big destination for South African Airways, with up to 11 weekly flights(7 A340-600 and 4 A330-300/A340-300) during the month of December and a daily flight all year long operated by wide-body aircrafts between JNB and MRU. Air Mauritius is also present in Johannesburg, Cape Town and Durban. Air Mauritius should however consider re-introducing night flights year-long to JNB to provide two-way convenient travel time for those travelling between Asia and Africa(starting with JNB). It was also stated by a SA official that Durban-Bangalore route was one with great potential, and Air Mauritius can well benefit from that.
Air Mauritius flights to Bangalore make a stop at Chennai on the return leg. Actually, 1 weekly flight is operated(due to delivery delays of MK's A330-900) but normally 2 weekly flights are operated. If MK operates 1 weekly flight to Chennai and Bangalore individually, taking into account that the Bangalore flights leave on Monday at 21 05, while Durban flights arrive in Mauritius at 18 10(reasonable 1h55min layover) and Bangalore-Mauritius flights with no stop at Chennai could arrive at about 11 00 the next day, while Mumbai flights arrive at 11 15, a Durban flight could leave Mauritius at 12 15, reaching the South African city at 14 35, leaving DUR at 15 50 and arriving in MRU at 21 50. On Tuesdays, Air Mauritius also have flights to Perth and Shanghai after 10 p.m. and thus short layovers will be available for those willing to connect to those 2 destinations, allowing for loads to be high enough to render the flights profitable.

With all of SAA politically bloated, no airline training upper management. Do they still have any routes that make money?

rbavfan wrote:

With all of SAA politically bloated, no airline training upper management. Do they still have any routes that make money?

Maybe Mauritius itself, which was one of its busiest international route for December 2018, with more than 3,250 seats available one-way weekly. South African Airways had extra capacity for this peak period and also serves the destination with wide-body aircrafts daily all year long. Its low-cost subsidiary Mango is also looking forward to launch 2 weekly flights between Johannesburg and Mauritius. There's not much competition on this route too(for the more than 110,000 South Africans visiting Mauritius and more than 25,000 Mauritians visiting SA and many other Africans/Asians transiting in Mauritius), except Air Mauritius which is a partner airline and Comair which operates only once weekly. Air Austral also offers 2 weekly base flights(with a 3rd one during peak season). So MRU can be a pretty profitable destination for the island.

Another question which comes to my mind concerning South Africa is:
How can Air Seychelles be really that successful on its JNB-SEZ route??
No more than 25,000 South Africans visit The Seychelles yearly and I guess that much less people from Seychelles visit SA. Or is it because HM offers the fastest and among the cheapest flights for Mumbai-Johannesburg travellers?

3BNBE wrote:

Another question which comes to my mind concerning South Africa is:
How can Air Seychelles be really that successful on its JNB-SEZ route??
No more than 25,000 South Africans visit The Seychelles yearly and I guess that much less people from Seychelles visit SA. Or is it because HM offers the fastest and among the cheapest flights for Mumbai-Johannesburg travellers?

I believe JNB-SEZ is quite popular with the BOM connection, plus have to keep in mind they only operate the A320 unlike SA/MK using widebodies. Having 25,000 South Africans fly the route is a significant portion of the seats and seems to be successful with HM adding additional capacity over the Christmas/NY period with one of the two extra weekly flights without an onward connection to BOM.

In regards with MK joining Skyteam, I think they have more issues to look out for with their half yearly results in the