NEW AIRPORT TERMINAL IN MAURITIUS OFFICIALLY HANDED OVER
(Posted 04th August 2013)
Mauritius’ international airport Sir Seewoosagur Ramgoolam has just taken ‘delivery’ of their brand new terminal building, which will double the capacity of the airport with an overall capacity of up to 4.5 million passengers a year. The new terminal offers an added 8 aircraft parking positions one of them able to handle the giant Airbus A380 aircraft, which Emirates now uses for one of their two daily flights from Dubai.
The arrival area on the ground floor level, according to information received from Port Louis, will feature 6 baggage delivery systems, aka carousels and after the customs check point offices for tour operators, car hire firms and other service providers. The upper level will house the check in area for airlines, with over 50 fully automated check in desk locations, followed by security, immigration and then over 4.000 square metres of duty free shops.
Built with sustainability in mind the roof has been designed to harvest rain water and has nearly 300 solar panels installed to supplement the new terminal’s electricity supply and heat water.
Building of the new facility took three years at a cost of about 270 million Euros and built by the China State Construction Corporation is now thought to be Mauritius’ largest building ever constructed.
Once put into use, expected after some final trial runs, by mid September, the new terminal will be managed by a joint venture company formed between AML, the Airports of Mauritius company and Airports of Paris Management.
Tourism sources on the island have warmly welcomed the handover and expressed their hope that the new terminal will be filled with life, i.e. aircraft movements, towards which end the tourism private sector continues to lobby for the Mauritius government to permit more airlines to fly to Port Louis to reverse the recent trend of shrinking passenger numbers.
