Air Mauritius has released its financial highlights for the year ended 31 March 2015

For the year ended 31 March 2015, the Group and the Company recorded losses of Eur 22.9 million and Eur 23.7 million respectively as compared to profits of Eur 8.5 million and Eur 7.3 million for the previous year.

The results for the year under review have been significantly impacted by the depreciation of the Euro. The EUR/USD parity moved from 1.38 at the start of the financial year to 1.08 at 31 March 2015. When compared to the previous year ended 31 March 2014, the net negative impact of the depreciation of the Euro has been Eur 25.6M.

However, as far as operations are concerned, the number of passengers carried went up by 3% to reach a record level of 1,370,423. The Available Seat Kilometres (ASK) went up by 4.9% whilst the passenger load factor dropped from 75.5% to 73.7%.

Operating revenue of the Company went up by Eur 3.9 million to reach Eur 463.1 million whereas operating expenses increased by Eur 23.5 million from Eur 428.7 million to Eur 452.2 million mainly on account of the depreciation of the Euro and the increased costs associated to the higher level of operations. Inclusive of the hedging policy of the Company, the increase in operating expenses was partly mitigated by the lower average fuel prices that prevailed during the last quarter of the financial year. Consequently, the gross profit decreased from Eur 30.5 million to Eur 10.9 million.

During the year, the Company increased its weekly frequency to mainland China to 5 (Shanghai:3 /Beijing:2) as compared to only 3 direct weekly frequencies during the previous year. However, these operations have not yielded the expected outcome resulting in a significant drop in the passenger load factor from 77.4% to only 65.2% when compared to the previous year.

In addition, the Company also suffered from a significant drop in market share on the local market as a result of intense competition. Local market passenger revenue decreased by Eur 6.8 million compared to last year.