As Air Mauritius is gearing up on its 40 years on 14 June 2007, this article takes us back to history in1922 when an aeroplane with paying passengers touched the Mauritian sky for the first time.

The launching of the first passenger flight in the Mauritian sky was hailed as a ?historic?event by the newspaper, Le Cernéen. That was in 1922. On an exciting Sunday afternoon of 4 June, a two passenger seater Avro type aeroplane took off from the ?aerodrome of Vacoas? at the Gymkhana ground for an air trip over Mauritius. The trip ticket cost Rs 50 per passenger and lasted almost half an hour. The crowd thronged at the Gymkhana ground had come by trains running specially for this event from places as far as Mahebourg. An aeroplane zooming in the Mauritian sky in 1922 seemed to be a wonder to marvel at.

The aircraft christened ?Maurice? took off amidst applause with its first two paying passengers, the Colin brothers ? Pierre and André. The first flight launching ceremony was attended by the officer administering the colony, Mr E.B Denham, who was acting on behalf of the Governor, Sir Hesketh Bell, then on leave in England.

Mr Denham made a brief speech, then with a hammer knock broke the bottle of champagne and spread the liquor on the plane. It was 2.30 p.m and the aeroplane took off on time.

Major Honnett, the pilot steered the aircraft towards Curepipe and maintained a flying altitude of 3 000 ft. As the engines? noise reverberated in the air, people rushed out of their dwellings with the eyes cast to the sky. Many others could not resist the temptation of climbing on house tops to enjoy a bit more of the view of this flying object. The newspaper Le Mauricien for its part tendered a piece of advice to those who could feel ill at ease with the roars of the engines: ?Si vous vous trouvez debout,? it wrote, ?et que vous entendez fortement le moteur, couchez vous à la mème place; le bruit sera considérablement atténué??

The aeroplane was shipped from South Africa on the Koenigsberg which reached Mauritius in April 1922. It appears that the Club de Curepipe and the Auto Club were the main sponsors of this project of flying an aeroplane in Mauritius. The flying programme was scheduled for six months. The test flight performed on 2 June prior to the inaugural passenger flight went without any hurdle. Flying at an altitude of 500 feet during the test flight, the aircraft dropped on its course piles of prospectus advertising the ?first passenger flight? that was to take place on the 4th June. The sponsors thought of completing five air trips before darkness was to settle in on that inaugural day.

From the Line Barracks in Port Louis where the aeroplane was put on display for a month against payment of a Rs 2 entrance fee, it went to the ?aerodrome of Vacoas? after completing its test on 2 June.

The inaugural event of the 4th was described as a ?historic? one in that it was the first time in the history of aviation in Mauritius that a plane with fare paying passengers on board was touching the Mauritian sky. The breath-taking panorama unfolding from above could not but inspire one of the passengers to write a song with the title ?Maurice a vol d?oiseau? in the newspaper Le Radical.

The acting Governor, Mr Denham and the Mayor and first member for Port Louis, Mr Edouard Nairac were amongst those distinguished persons who made the trip over Mauritius. ?Voilà qui est fait,? wrote Le Cernéen the next day, ?L?azure colonial a été à deux reprises violé si l?on peut dire...? What a breakthrough it was!

That was the modest beginning of commercial aviation in Mauritius if one may say so.

Local in scope as the venture looked then, it was Governor Bede Clifford who thought of going ?global? when he announced in a big way in 1939 the possibility of connecting Mauritius to Europe, in particular England, with the establishment of air links. The Governor?s objective was not only to make the island more easily accessible to Britain but also to introduce Mauritius as a tourist destination. In fact, on a visit to England in early 1939, Sir Bede Clifford said he held ?most encouraging? discussions with Imperial Airways on opening air communication with Mauritius. Imperial Airways was later merged into BOAC. With the Government of Mauritius, Rogers& Co. and Air France, BOAC was going to be a co- founder of Air Mauritius Limited on 14 June 1967.