Air Mauritius to operate direct flights to china from 2012

Air Mauritius Ltd., sub-Saharan Africa’s fourth-largest airline, will operate direct weekly flights to Shanghai from February 2012, the government said.

The airline will start a service to the Chinese city with a stop-over in Kuala Lumpur on July 5 this year, the Port Louis- based government said in a statement published on its website today, following the weekly cabinet meeting. The company will introduce a second weekly direct flight from October 2012, it said.

Chinese visitors to Mauritius during the first quarter through March increased 30 percent to 3,123, according to data released by the Central Statistics Office on May 25.

Non-stop flights will be extended to Beijing, the government said, without giving further details.