High fuel prices bring new ideas
Of the many topics discussed at this year's Annual General Meeting of the International Air Transport Association (IATA) in Sydney, the sustained rise in fuel prices was one of them.
This puts pressure on smaller airlines in particular, such as Air Mauritius. "For us, this means that we actually have to be bigger as an airline in order to be able to absorb these shocks (from fuel prices but also currency fluctuations)," explains its CEO Somas Appavou to Connoisseur Circle. Such situations call for new ideas. "We are working on a new project to develop the first African airline alliance, together with South African Airways and Kenya Airways".
The existing cooperation must be improved and contracts revised. The fact that time is pressing is also evident from the fact that this alliance is to be finalized in July or September at the latest. A name has not yet been decided. "The bigger you are as an airline, the more you can absorb these shockwaves, the smaller you are, the more difficult it is". In addition, small airlines are not in a position to determine flight prices - this is usually done by the large airlines. "With this alliance, we want to leverage synergies together, optimize frequencies between our hubs and at the same time create a corridor concept from Africa to Asia / Australia via Mauritius," says Appavou.
Even though Air Mauritius has good partnerships with Emirates, Air France and KLM, the dominance of the Gulf carriers and the competition from low-cost airlines and charter airlines from Europe make it challenging for Air Mauritius on its home island. "After all, 26 airlines fly to Mauritius," he said. Nevertheless, Air Mauritius is planning growth of five percent. "But we don't want to place too much capacity on the market, because that in turn has a negative impact on earnings," said Appavou.
Postscript: The era of cheap fuel for the airline industry is over for the time being, all IATA members agreed.
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