Air Mauritius will drop its Saturday morning departures out of Johannesburg, effective August 21.

The airline will compensate the reduction in capacity with the introduction of its A340 wide-body aircraft on its Sunday flights, which are currently operated by the A319.   

Air Mauritius morning flights were introduced in July last year to offer travellers a more favourable schedule.

“We have been reviewing the flights on an on-going basis and, despite all our efforts to make a success of these departures, the cost impact versus the revenue generation is not commercially viable for Air Mauritius anymore,” the airline said in a statement. “Parking the aircraft overnight, coupled with crew and handling costs, came at a huge cost for the airline, and the revenue did not justify the costs on these operations.”

The A340 features 254 economy seats and 34 business-class seats. Passengers can upgrade to business class on the day of the departure for R1 850. Air Mauritius currently operates wide-body aircraft on Tuesdays, Thursdays and Saturdays.