Vistara, the first Indian airline on the route in 17 years, is now accepting reservations.
It has been made known by Vistara that it will fly the A321LR to Mauritius. Although long awaited, Mumbai-Mauritius is now open for reservations and will depart in less than two months. On the 2,905-mile (4,675-km) airport pair, Vistara will travel alongside Air Mauritius.
Data from Cirium indicates that Vistara will be the first Indian airline to fly between Mumbai and Mauritius after Air India discontinued service on the route in 2006. The announcement coincides with SAS’s resumption of service between Copenhagen and New York JFK after more than 30 years.
The Mumbai-Mauritius route will be launched by Vistara.
The first confirmed route for the three-class, 188-seater A321LR, which was delivered to the airline earlier in February, is Mumbai to Mauritius. It will begin operating five times per week on March 26th, the day that Northern Hemisphere airlines switch to summer schedules.
Instead of the claimed theoretical range of the A321LR, it is more likely to be around 70% of the real-world range. The program is as follows, all times are local: UK241, 07:30–12:00 (6-hour block time); Monday through Wednesday; Thursday; Friday; Saturday; from Mumbai
UK242, 13:00–21:00 (6 hours); Monday–Wednesday–Friday; Saturday
Flights from Mumbai to Mauritius are available here.
Of course, Vistara might opt to fly it domestically first, but as of February 10th, no information about this has been made public. It’s also likely that another route, possibly to Nairobi or Hong Kong, will be revealed soon and begin at around the same time. Asia is Mauritius’s largest market
Given the long history of the Indian diaspora in Mauritius, it appears that the market is dominated by Indian visitors to Mauritius and medical travelers to and from Mauritius. Approximately 60% of travellers made their reservations from India, making it the most popular point of sale.
According to data from reservations, 119,000 people travelled from Mumbai to Mauritius and back to Mumbai in 2019. Air Mauritius provided nonstop service to over 75 percent of the passengers. The rest, on the other hand, traveled by indirect routes, primarily with Air Seychelles, but also via Dubai with Emirates and via Nairobi with Kenya Airways. Prior to the 2019 epidemic.
Mumbai was the largest market for Mauritius in Asia. Delhi, the runner-up, with 64,000 passengers, about half the number of Mumbai; may Vistara enter that market as well or fly travelers over Mumbai? The remaining top ten cities were Shanghai, Chennai, Hong Kong, Bengaluru, Kuala Lumpur, Dhaka, Singapore, and Bangkok.
In terms of popularity on a global scale, Mumbai ranked ninth for Mauritius in 2019 after Saint-Denis (Reunion), Johannesburg, Paris CDG, London Gatwick, London Heathrow, Saint-Pierre (Reunion), and Antananarivo. Air Mauritius will face off against Vistara.
For a very long period, Air Mauritius had service to Mumbai. It still operates now, year-round, six times per week. It is currently an A330neo route. Air Mauritius arrives in Mumbai at 01:00 or 02:20 and departs at either 02:45 or 04:05, in contrast to Vistara, which runs throughout the day in both directions.
