PORT LOUIS: Air Mauritius’ narrowed its first-half pretax loss to 3.81 million euros ($4.08 million) from 6.15 million euros a year earlier, helped by revenue and passenger growth.
The Indian Ocean island is a popular high-end holiday destination, but the economic slowdown in key markets has weighed heavily on tourism.
Total passengers ferried during the second quarter grew by 11.7 percent to 382,000 and helped its performance in the six months to Sept. 30, the national airline said in a statement.
Second-quarter pretax profit was 5.8 million euros compared with 521,000 euros a year earlier.
This was “the best result achieved in recent years notwithstanding a pay-out of 8.3 million euros on hedging obligations contracted last year,” Chairman Arjoon Sudhoo said.
Revenue rose to 238.86 million euros in the second quarter from 230.18 million a year earlier.
“The operating environment will clearly remain challenging and will continue to be driven by volatile fuel prices and exchange rates,” the airline said.
