Sir

Seewoosagur Ramgoolam Sir Seewoosagur Ramgoolam (in traditional Hindi: Shivsagar Ram Gulam) (18 September 1900 – 15 December 1985; often referred to as ''Chacha Ramgoolam'' or ''SSR'') was a Mauritian physician, politician, and statesman. He served as the island's o ...

International Airport is the main

international airport An international airport is an airport with customs and border control facilities enabling passengers to travel between countries around the world. International airports are usually larger than domestic airports and they must feature longer r ...

Mauritius Mauritius ( ; french: Maurice, link=no ; mfe, label= Mauritian Creole, Moris ), officially the Republic of Mauritius, is an island nation in the Indian Ocean about off the southeast coast of the African continent, east of Madagascar. It ...

. It is located southeast of the capital city of

Port Louis Port Louis (french: Port-Louis; mfe, label= Mauritian Creole, Polwi or , ) is the capital city of Mauritius. It is mainly located in the Port Louis District, with a small western part in the Black River District. Port Louis is the country's ...

. The airport was previously known as the ''Plaisance Airport'' and has direct flights to several destinations in Africa, Asia, Europe and is home to the country's national airline

Air Mauritius Air Mauritius is the flag carrier airline of Mauritius. The airline is headquartered in Port Louis, Mauritius, with its hub based at Sir Seewoosagur Ramgoolam International Airport. The company was placed in voluntary administration on 22 Apr ...

. Airports of Mauritius Co. Ltd (AML) is the owner and operator of the airport, the

Government of Mauritius The Government of Mauritius () is the main authority of the executive power in the Republic of Mauritius. The head of the Government is the Prime Minister of Mauritius, who manages the main agenda of the Government and direct the ministers. The 2 ...

is the major shareholder of AML.

History

As a part of the defence of Mauritius, in 1942, when Mauritius was a

Crown colony A Crown colony or royal colony was a colony administered by The Crown within the British Empire. There was usually a Governor, appointed by the British monarch on the advice of the UK Government, with or without the assistance of a local Council ...

, the government started construction of a

Royal Naval Air Station The Fleet Air Arm (FAA) is one of the five fighting arms of the Royal Navy and is responsible for the delivery of naval air power both from land and at sea. The Fleet Air Arm operates the F-35 Lightning II for maritime strike, the AW159 Wi ...

at Plaisance near

Mahébourg Mahébourg is a small town on the south-eastern coast of the island of Mauritius, having a population of 15,457 as of 2015.Digest of Demographic Statistics 2015; Available at http://statsmauritius.govmu.org/English/Pages/POPULATION--And-VITAL-STAT ...

. This was subsequently handed over to the

Royal Air Force The Royal Air Force (RAF) is the United Kingdom's air and space force. It was formed towards the end of the First World War on 1 April 1918, becoming the first independent air force in the world, by regrouping the Royal Flying Corps (RFC) an ...

at the end of

World War II World War II or the Second World War, often abbreviated as WWII or WW2, was a world war that lasted from 1939 to 1945. It involved the World War II by country, vast majority of the world's countries—including all of the great power ...

and civilian operations started shortly afterwards. The operations of the civil airport started just after the Second World War which gave a boost to the Mauritian economy. The first flight to

Rodrigues Rodrigues (french: Île Rodrigues, link=yes ; Creole: ) is a autonomous outer island of the Republic of Mauritius in the Indian Ocean, about east of Mauritius. It is part of the Mascarene Islands, which include Mauritius and Réunion. R ...

island was made on 10 September 1972, an

flight from Plaisance Airport to the Plaine Corail Airport (now

Sir Gaëtan Duval Airport Sir Gaëtan Duval Airport is an airport located near Plaine Corail on Rodrigues, an island dependency of Mauritius. It is named after Gaëtan Duval (1930–1996), a former deputy Mauritian prime minister, who oversaw much of the development of ...

) at Rodrigues using a Twin Otter (3B-NAB). Later the Twin Otters were replaced by

ATR 42 The ATR 42 is a regional airliner produced by Franco-Italian manufacturer ATR, with final assembly in Toulouse, France. On 4 November 1981, the aircraft was launched with ATR, as a joint venture between French Aérospatiale (now Airbus) and ...

-300 and

-500 twin turboprops. Later in 1986, infrastructure works were undertaken to accommodate larger aircraft. Thus, a new terminal was built including airbridges to meet the expected increase in traffic growth, and a car park attached to the new building and customs service for international routes. The new terminal consisted of two floors and could accommodate up to four aircraft simultaneously via airbridges.

Facilities

A new passenger

terminal Terminal may refer to: Computing Hardware * Terminal (electronics), a device for joining electrical circuits together * Terminal (telecommunication), a device communicating over a line * Computer terminal, a set of primary input and output devi ...

was inaugurated on 30 August 2013, and became fully operational in September 2013. The structure of the New Airport Terminal is designed after the " Traveller's palm", a tropical plant that grows on Mauritius. It is connected to the existing terminal (refurbishment began in 2014) and has a capacity of 4 million passengers. Airport Terminal Operations Ltd (ATOL) is responsible for the design, building and operation of the new terminal building. The new terminal, which cost US$306 million, is in line with the "Maurice Ile Durable" concept. Environmental and ecological aspects taken into consideration include using

solar energy Solar energy is radiant light and heat from the Sun that is harnessed using a range of technologies such as solar power to generate electricity, solar thermal energy (including solar water heating), and solar architecture. It is an essen ...

collected by

photovoltaic Photovoltaics (PV) is the conversion of light into electricity using semiconducting materials that exhibit the photovoltaic effect, a phenomenon studied in physics, photochemistry, and electrochemistry. The photovoltaic effect is commercially ...

cells, recovering rain water, integrating nature to the heart of the building, and including thermo-insulated facades to reduce heat gain. The terminal covers an area of 57,000 square meters and is equipped with five boarding gates with airbridges, including one compatible with the large

Airbus A380 The Airbus A380 is a large wide-body airliner that was developed and produced by Airbus. It is the world's largest passenger airliner and only full-length double-deck jet airliner. Airbus studies started in 1988, and the project was annou ...

, check-in desks for departing passengers, immigration counters, and baggage carousels.

Airlines and destinations

;Notes * :

Turkish Airlines Turkish Airlines ( Turkish: ''Türk Hava Yolları'') is the national flag carrier airline of Turkey. , it operates scheduled services to 340 destinations in Europe, Asia, Africa, and the Americas, making it the largest mainline carrier in the ...

' flight from

Istanbul Airport Istanbul Airport ( tr, İstanbul Havalimanı, ) is the main international airport serving Istanbul, Turkey. It is located in the Arnavutköy district on the European side of the city. All scheduled commercial passenger flights were transfer ...

to Mauritius continues on to

Antananarivo Antananarivo ( French: ''Tananarive'', ), also known by its colonial shorthand form Tana, is the capital and largest city of Madagascar. The administrative area of the city, known as Antananarivo-Renivohitra ("Antananarivo-Mother Hill" or "A ...

. However, Turkish Airlines does not have traffic rights to transport passengers solely between Mauritius and Antananarivo.

Statistics

References

External links