Air Austral Makes Schedule Adjustments

Air Austral has announced that it will suspend flights to Bangkok, Noumea and Sydney to allow it to concentrate on its core market of providing links between Reunion Island and France. The airline will also expand its network to France after opening reservations on a new direct service to Paris CDG from the Seychelles, filling the void after Air Seychelles withdraws from the European market early next year.

In a statement Air Austral has confirmed it will suspend the weekly St Denis de la Reunion – Bangkok and up to twice weekly St Denis de la Reunion – Sydney – Noumea routes from March 2012. This will result in the suspension of all long-haul services between Reunion and East Asia. Air Austral has only been serving Bangkok since April this year having previously held a codeshare arrangement with Air Madagascar on its Antananarivo – St Denis de la Reunion – Bangkok – Guangzhou route. It has been flying to Sydney and Noumea since April 2009.

The French market has been Air Austral’s focus for many years and the carrier plans to introduce the Airbus A380 into this market. It has two examples on order for delivery in 2014 and plans to configure them in an 840-seat all-Economy layout.