AIRPORT MAURITIUS ANNOUNCES PROFITS FOR LAST FINANCIAL YEAR
With nearly 2.7 million passengers arriving, departing and transiting through the Sir Seewoosagur Ramgoolam International Airport in 2012, the parastatal company announced a dividend to be paid to the Mauritius government of 460 million Rupees from a combined operational pre-tax profit of nearly 1.4 billion Rupees.
The airport, located near Mahebourg, is currently undergoing a major expansion with a new terminal building at the core of the works being carried out, as previously reported here. An additional Freeport and extra cargo processing facilities will be added too after the land acquisition has been completed with the payments finally made to affected residents, an issue which held up the construction start.
The source in Port Louis also confirmed that a new VIP section is being added to the newly constructed terminal building to cater for visiting Heads of State and Government and other VIP arrivals in an altogether state of the art setting.
Added the source: ‘2.69 + million passengers is a new record for our international airport. Now that Air Mauritius has stabilized and seems on the way to financial recovery all is left is for MTPA to do their job properly. They have to attract new tourists from new markets and lobby for airlines to be allowed to fly to Mauritius more often, using bigger aircraft and even bring new carriers to fly here. But with their mindset, who knows what they do to get new airlines come here. If they could have done a better job, we would not have lost our status as number one destination in the Indian Ocean to Maldives and have Sri Lanka breath down our necks. We would not have seen tourist numbers to fall below the 1 million mark. We would have added visitors and our airport could have reported even 3 million passenger movements and an even bigger profit because airport taxes would have given them more income’.
As true as that might be, fodder for thought for sure and all the more important to watch this space for future news.
2 Responses
Back in mid-2011 the new terminal was scheduled for completion in December 2012. This became January 2013 – fair enough, as big projects often see some slippage. For the past few months, there has been little mention of the opening date. It must surely be close to completion now, so why the mystery? The uncertainty and silence will surely be a little unsettling to the airport’s clients.
Like many others familiar with the existing building, I am eager to see if the reality is as going to be as impressive as the artist’s impressions. I don’t doubt that AML will pull off its side of things; whether it will get the necessary backing from MTPA to attract sufficient passengers is quite another question of course.
The other big question we’re all eager to have answered is whether the airport’s catering will be better value and of better quality. A half-filled polystyrene cup of lukewarm brown water for the price of a pot of decent tea at Heathrow – no, Mauritius, it’s not a pleasure! And don’t even mention the rip-off duty-free shop. When I conducted a price-comparison check in mid-2011 every single item I looked at was considerably more expensive than the identical item in shops in Mahebourg.
We both know of course that getting answers from Mauritius is like pulling teeth … thanks for your insight Stephen which is much appreciated.
W.