Air Mauritius flies to Jakarta

JAKARTA (JP): Air Mauritius, the flag carrier of the Republic of Mauritius, an island-country in the Indian Ocean, is scheduled to start serving Jakarta on Nov. 2.

Nurdin Purnomo, the president of PT Duta Cardindo, the general sales agent for the airline, said yesterday that Air Mauritius will operate Boeing B-767-300 aircraft to Jakarta.

"The plane will serve Port Louis-Jakarta via Singapore and Jakarta-Port Louis directly. We expect to see a 60 percent load factor in the Mauritius-Jakarta route," he said, adding that the airline plans to use an Airbus A-340 jet if the load factor is promising.

"The airline has proposed the service to Indonesia since 1989," he said.

He said that Mauritius is a gateway to East Africa, Madagascar and South Africa, three potential countries for Indonesia's tourism industry. Some 3,000 Mauritians visited Indonesia last year. (icn)