Air Mauritius

Is Air Mauritius safe?

Yes. Air Mauritius has no fatal accident and no written-off aircraft in the records, and its long-haul fleet is young. Four Airbus A350-900s and two A330-900s fly most of its widebody routes, and the airline holds IOSA registrationIOSAThe IATA Operational Safety Audit, an international audit of an airline's safety management and operations. Every IATA member must pass it.More in the glossary as an IATA member. We score it 82, above South African Airways (77) and Kenya Airways (75).

Two things keep it from scoring higher. It is a small airline, with about a dozen aircraft, so a clean record covers far fewer flights than it would at a large carrier. And Mauritius makes little of its oversight public: it is not on the FAA's assessment list, we could not see its ICAO audit result, and we found few published investigation reports.

What a clean record means for a small airline

The worst event in Air Mauritius's file is more than 30 years old. On 31 July 1992 a Boeing 767 flying near Munich ran into sudden, heavy turbulence at the edge of thunderstorms. The aircraft stalled and dropped from about 39,000 to 35,000 feet before the crew recovered it. Three cabin crew were seriously injured. In April 2004 an A340 was damaged while parked at Mumbai; the record gives no detail and no one was hurt.

Since then the reports are technical, not accidents. An A340 shut down an engine after leaving Mauritius for Paris in 2013, an A350 had a landing gear problem leaving Paris in 2019, and an A330-200 rejected its take-off at Mumbai in February 2024 with an engine problem. None caused injuries.

At about 12 aircraft, Air Mauritius flies a small share of the flights that FlySafair or SAA fly each year. No fatal accident in its history is a real strength, but small numbers make it a weaker proof than the same record at a large airline. That is why the accident record scores 92, not higher.

The 2020 collapse and the smaller airline since

When the pandemic stopped tourism, Air Mauritius ran out of money. It entered voluntary administration on 22 April 2020, with two Grant Thornton partners as administrators. It left 17 months later, after creditors approved a government-backed loan of about MUR12 billion (around USD280 million) on 29 September 2021. The fleet went from 15 aircraft to nine: four A350s, two A330-900s and three ATR 72s. Two A319s and older widebodies left.

By October 2025 the fleet had grown back to 12, with two A330-200s on short leases. The airline plans to return those in 2026 and take three more A350s from late 2026, although its own chairman has argued that four A350s are enough for its two European routes. The plan is under review by outside consultants. We do not score finances, but an airline that has cut staff and fleet that sharply deserves a watch on maintenance and crew currency. We found no regulatory finding on either.

Flying to Rodrigues and around the Indian Ocean

The four ATR 72 turboprops fly the hop to Rodrigues, the smaller Mauritian island, and some regional routes. Most of the ATR reports since 2020 are technical problems that ended in normal landings: a loose engine cowl in December 2020, a smoke indication in May 2024, a cracked windshield in November 2025 and another technical return in March 2026.

The bigger risk on this network is weather. The cyclone season runs from November to April, and a cyclone warning can stop flights at the Mauritius airport for a day or more. Rodrigues has the only airport on its island, more than 500 km from Mauritius, so a flight that cannot land there has to return.

How to fly Air Mauritius safely

• Book around cyclone season if your dates are fixed. From November to April, a cyclone can close Mauritius at short notice. Allow a spare day before an onward long-haul flight.
• Keep your seat belt fastened on long-haul flights over Africa. The 1992 injuries came from severe turbulence at the edge of thunderstorms, a risk that is still common on routes across the equator.
• Check the operator on codeshares. Some Air Mauritius tickets are on partner airlines, which this score does not cover.

How we scored it

The accident record (92) and the fleet (82) are the strongest factors: no fatal accident on record and modern A350s and A330-900s. Oversight (75) is held back because Mauritius has no FAA rating and little public audit data, even with IOSAIOSAThe IATA Operational Safety Audit, an international audit of an airline's safety management and operations. Every IATA member must pass it.More in the glossary. Incidents (72) are scored with caution for the same reason, and a cyclone-prone island network scores 74. Overall 82. For a nearby comparison, see FlySafair.