The red carpet has been rolled out on the landing strip. Plaisance is set to welcome both Air India and Alitalia this year. These airlines have been eyeing up Mauritius over the last months and are now ready to make their move. They will both enter code-sharing agreements with Air Mauritius.

Alitalia should be the first to strike a deal with local authorities. Its arrival in Mauritius has been delayed by the unexpected revival of Air Europe. The low-cost airline, part of Italian group Volare, had been grounded for nearly two months before being salvaged in mid-December. It has been granted a temporary six months? licence and can only fly a single Boeing 767.

Despite its financial predicament, Air Europe has managed to resume its weekly Milan-Rome-Mauritius flight since December 29. This has thwarted Alitalia, which wanted to pinch Air Europe?s rights on the route. According to the actual agreement, only one designated airline per country is allowed to service the Italy-Mauritius route. Each carrier is allowed a maximum of 800 seats weekly.

New bilateral talks between Italy and Mauritius are scheduled in the next weeks. These should be critical for Alitalia, which hopes to take up Air Europe?s rights on the Mauritius route or alternatively operate in parallel with its Italian rival. In either case, the capacity on the route will be increased while Alitalia is determined to strike up a deal with Air Mauritius. The latter is also confident of winning new rights in Italy, including the possibility of flying to Milan (the origin of 85% of its Italian traffic) without being forced to serve Rome. Air Mauritius also wishes to operate an off-peak Milan-Rome-Mauritius service.

Air Europe?s service to Mauritius remains volatile. The Volare subsidiary says it intends to launch a second weekly flight very soon but its credibility has taken a serious knock. Its financial woes in Italy are well documented but it also has important debts in Mauritius. It owes Rs 7 million to Airports of Mauritius Limited (AML), a sum it has promised to settle in the next fortnight. Meanwhile, it is settling all its accounts with Plaisance on a cash basis.

Air India?s return will be more straightforward. Mauritius and India will open bilateral talks on air access in the next weeks. The agreement should grant fifth freedom rights to Air India. The Indian airline stopped serving Plaisance in the mid 90s due to a passenger shortage. It now wants to use Mauritius as a stopover on its India-South Africa route.

The India-Mauritius service is still considered as a thin route but the fifth freedom rights will be a whole new ball game. Air India will have traffic rights between India and South-Africa, India-Mauritius and Mauritius-South Africa. This will open up an annual market of 140 000 passengers, provided a trilateral agreement with South Africa is also signed.

Air India expands

Air India will serve Plaisance as soon as it rejuvenates its ageing fleet. The airlines welcomed a leased Boeing 777 last December ? the first newcomer to join its fleet of 35 aircrafts in a decade. Air India plans to lease two more 777s by March and buy 50 new aircrafts in the next five years. This juicy contract should be awarded this month.

Air India?s new verve is linked with the Indian government?s policy change. Each year, five million Indians use international flights while three million tourists visit India. However, 75% of the international traffic is carried by foreign airlines. India has opened international routes to its domestic airlines, namely Jet Airways and Air Sahara. Both have already earmarked flights to Asian and European destinations in 2005. Mauritius could crop up on their list. Air Sahara is already Air Mauritius preferred partner for domestic flights in India.

At present, each country can only designate one airline to serve the Mauritius-India route. This could change after the next round of bilateral talks as both Jet Airways and Air Sahara have applied to be considered as flag carriers too. However, the first choice will always be Air India whose main shareholder is the Indian State. The Indian airline also owns a chunk of Air Mauritius. The Maharajah, symbol of Air India, will definitely have the red carpet treatment at Plaisance.