Megh Pillay has left Air Mauritius with much pride. “I was lucky enough to have the necessary support to make a certain number of big projects move forward to help Air Mauritius reposition itself,” he said to l’express a few days before leaving his post. The general assembly last Friday was very quiet and the shareholders voted unanimously for Nirvan Veerassamy as general manager .

This assembly was the last opportunity for Megh Pillay to justify the purchase of three brand new Airbus aircraft during the electoral campaign. As this decision had been criticised on private radios by shareholders, the general manager was cautious enough to give full explanations on the purchase before question time.

Some shareholders questioned Megh Pillay about the timing of the purchase. But the general manager explained that this was the only way of making sure that they would be delivered on time. If the board had waited longer, the aircraft would have been delivered in 2008. Although they did not always agree with him, the shareholders were very attentive to the explanations. Megh Pillay was warmly applauded by some shareholders as the assembly ended.

The new general manager is already in post and must have started thinking about new strategies to sustain the airline’s competitiveness. Megh Pillay says he has “put the TGV back on track”; Nirvan Veerassamy now has to do his utmost to keep it flying high.