Air Mauritius back to profitability

These positive results marked the return to profit of the national airline over a full financial year after two consecutive loss making years. Air Mauritius has benefitted from its transformation program named "7 Step Plan" which was launched in February 2012. This program, which is on-going, encompasses four 'Recovery Steps' and three 'Game Changers'. The former relate to our network and fleet, commercial and revenue management, cash improvement and asset rationalization. The 'Game Changers' aim at ensuring long term sustainability and involve re-fleeting, improving quality of service and harnessing our human capital.

Re-balancing growth to emerging markets was further strengthened during financial year 2012-13. Air Mauritius has rationalized its network and now offers more choice and flexibility to its passengers by serving hubs while flying directly to 20 destinations in Europe, Asia, Africa, Australia and the South West Indian Ocean region. We have also reinforced our gateways to Africa, Asia and Australia while concentrating our network around hubs in Paris, Kuala Lumpur, Johannesburg, Nairobi and Perth with enhanced agreements with airline partners.

Thanks to this new approach in network configuration and despite fierce competition, Air Mauritius has carried 2,6% more passengers compared to the previous financial year (1 330 003 passengers for financial year 2013-2014). The number of seats offered remain unchanged at 1 869 736. The figures for the emerging markets show that Air Mauritius has made the right choice on its network concentration: 593 498 passengers travelled on the routes Mauritius/Asia and Mauritius/Africa, which represents an increase of 23% as compared to financial year 2011-2012.

Global Aviation Industry
The Airline Industry performance continued to improve during 2013/14 in spite of high oil prices averaging USD 108 per barrel. In 2013, the overall industry revenue increased by 4.6% and net global profit after tax increased from USD 6.1 billion to USD 10.6 billion.

Air Mauritius Group and Company results for the year
Despite high oil prices and the significant depreciation of some major revenue earning currencies vis a vis the Euro, the Group and the Company managed to post profits for the year ended 31 March 2014 of Euro 8.5 million and Euro 7.3 million respectively compared to losses of Euro 2.5 million and Euro 3.6 million for the previous year. The Company's gross profit of Euro 30.5 Million represents a gross margin improvement of 58% as compared to last year. The Company declared a dividend of Rs 0.50 per share in March 2014.
During the year, the Company continued the implementation of its Recovery Plan which saw further realignment of its network. Additional frequencies were added on routes showing potential growth namely, in the Asian, Australian and African arena. A direct service to Beijing was also introduced as from July 2013.
These changes to the network were instrumental to the number of passengers carried reaching an all time record of 1,330,003 for the year ended 31 March 2014. The operating revenue of the Company increased from Euro 450.0 million to Euro 459.2 million whereas the operating cost witnessed a marginal decrease from Euro 430.7 million to Eur 428.7 million.

Outlook
The implementation of the Recovery Plan is impacting positively on the performance of the Company. As per the Plan, it is expected that the Company will further improve its performance during the financial year 2014/15 based on current operating conditions. The Company is fully committed in achieving the objectives for the next financial year. Air Mauritius is progressing on its fleet renewal program with a targeted phased delivery starting from 2017/18.