Mauritius airport
| Mauritius airport | |
|---|---|
|
|
| Characteristics | |
| ICAO code | FIMP |
| IATA code | MRU |
| Coordinates | |
| Height above MSL | 57 m (187 ft ) |
| Transport links | |
| Distance from the city center | 5 km southwest of Mahébourg, 20 km south-east of Curepipe , 35 km south-east of Port Louis |
| Basic data | |
| operator | Airports of Mauritius Co. Ltd |
| Terminals | 1 |
| Passengers | 3,197,308 (2015) |
| Flight movements |
20,343 (2006) |
| Start-and runway | |
| 14/32 | 3040 m × 75 m asphalt |
The international airport of Mauritius , originally called Plaisance Airport , has been officially named Sir Seewoosagur Ramgoolam International Airport of Mauritius since 1987 and is named after the Governor General Seewoosagur Ramgoolam . The airport is 5 km southwest of Mahébourg and around 35 km from Port Louis , the capital of Mauritius. The operating company is the AML.
Airlines and destinations
Plaisance is the hub of Air Mauritius , which has an intercontinental route network with connections to Rodrigues , Réunion , Paris , Sydney and Singapore . The airport is also served by various other airlines such as Air Austral or Air Madagascar from the neighboring islands, South African Airways from Africa, Air France , British Airways , Condor Flugdienst , Corsairfly , Edelweiss Air , Lufthansa , Austrian Airlines , Saudi Arabian Airlines and Emirates from Dubai. In addition, Eurowings will fly to Mauritius with an Airbus A330 from Düsseldorf and Munich .
history
The beginnings of the airport go back to the time of the Second World War, when the Royal Air Force converted an area of 263 hectares there into a military airfield in 1942. In June 1944, a Consolidated PBY “Catalina” , a twin-engine maritime reconnaissance aircraft , landed at the airport for the first time. This started from Mombasa . The first airport building was built in 1945. From April 1947 commercial air traffic took place regularly when Air France flew to destinations in Europe from here with a Lockheed Super Constellation . In 1948 a second terminal was built in which arriving and departing passengers could be handled. In July 1952, Qantas took the island as a stopover in their flights from Sydney to Johannesburg with the same machine . In 1954 the third terminal was built, which for the first time had a viewing terrace and was inaugurated by Governor Sir Hilary Blood .
In the mid-1960s, the runway was extended to 2560 meters in order to be able to fly to the island with jets. In 1970 Lufthansa also added flights to Mauritius in its route network and in 1973, due to growing tourism, more than 1,500 flight movements and more than 100,000 passengers were counted.
In December 1987 a new terminal was opened and the airport was renamed Sir Seewoosagur Ramgoolam International Airport of Mauritius .
In 1998 the runway was again extended to 3040 meters, which means that large aircraft such as the Airbus A380 can land here. Emirates currently operates flights from Dubai with an A380.
A new terminal was opened on August 30, 2013. The plans included an investment of 250 million euros, a capacity of up to 1640 passengers per hour and completion originally in summer 2012. A large part of the financing (90% of the loan for the construction cost) comes from China. The construction workers are also said to be of Chinese origin. The terminal now has a capacity of 4.5 million passengers annually and ended up costing $ 305 million.
Incidents
- On August 24, 1960, a Lockheed L-1049G Super Constellation operated by the Australian Qantas ( aircraft registration VH-EAC ) failed during take-off at Mauritius Airport. During the following aborted take-off , it was not possible to bring the aircraft to a stop in time; it rolled over the end of the runway at a speed of 40 knots. The machine jumped over an embankment, crashed into a deep gully, and caught fire. All 50 occupants, 12 crew members and 38 passengers survived the total write-off.
- On November 28, 1987, the flight crew of a Boeing 747 from South African Airways (ZS-SAS) , which was on the regular flight from Taiwan to South Africa , tried to make an emergency landing on Mauritius after a fire broke out in the cargo hold . However, the machine crashed into the sea 250 kilometers northeast of it. All 159 people on board died (see also South African Airways Flight 295 ) .
Web links
- Airports of Mauritius Co. Ltd. , Official website (English)
- Current weather at the airport (NOAA)
- History of the airport's flight accident (aviation safety)
Individual evidence
- ↑ a b Airport Facts & Figures. AML.MRU.aero, accessed October 21, 2017 .
- ↑ Worldwide Airport Traffic Statistics 2006. (PDF; 720 KB) Airports Council International , December 2006, archived from the original on October 8, 2007 ; accessed on March 4, 2015 .
- ↑ Ben R. Guttery: Encyclopedia of African Airlines . Ben Guttery, 1998, ISBN 978-0-7864-0495-7 , pp. 291 ( full text in Google Book Search).
- ↑ a b aml.mru.aero: History , accessed on March 12, 2016
- ↑ FlugRevue November 2010, pp. 58–61, Insel im Aufbruch
- ↑ INAUGURATION DU NOUVEAU TERMINAL DE L'AÉROPORT INTERNATIONAL SIR SEEWOOSAGUR RAMGOOLAM. Airports of Mauritius, August 30, 2013, accessed February 10, 2016 (French).
- ^ Accident report L-1049G VH-EAC , Aviation Safety Network (English), accessed on December 22, 2019.