In a significant development that is likely to provide a tremendous boost to outbound tourism from India to Mauritius, Air Mauritius has decided to recommence flights to New Delhi from May.

One of the biggest challenges in restoration of tourist traffic from India to Mauritius has been the poor connectivity as the only direct service to the Indian Ocean island to India has so far been to Mumbai.

The lack of flights from other cities in India, notably New Delhi has long been raised at various fora. Now, to change all that the national carrier of Mauritius, Air Mauritius says it will resume its direct operations to and from Indira Gandhi International Airport in New Delhi from May 3, with two weekly flights using the Airbus A330 aircraft in a Business and Economy class configuration with a capacity of 254 seats. The duration of the flight is 07 hours and 30 minutes.

In a press statement, the airline says that MK745 will depart from Delhi every Thursday and Sunday at 08:00, reaching Port Louis at 14:00 the same day. The flight from Port Louis to New Delhi will depart every Wednesday and Saturday at 21:15, arriving in New Delhi at 06:15.

Currently, Air Mauritius operates six weekly flights from Port Louis to Chhatrapati Shivaji Maharaj International Airport in Mumbai.

“We are excited to resume our operations to New Delhi after three years of absence. India and Mauritius share a special relationship that is built on the foundation of people-to-people ties. Both India and Mauritius are united by culture, ancestry, language and geography. In April this year, Air Mauritius will be proudly commemorating its 50 years of presence in Mumbai. New avenues are being explored with Air India in order to offer seamless connectivity via both Mumbai and New Delhi to/from a number of destinations in India,” says Krešimir Kučko, CEO of Air Mauritius.

The airline says nowadays has one of the youngest and most modern fleet in the world, with the latest generation aircraft such as the Airbus A350-900 XWB and the A330-900neo.