Air Mauritius has notified the trade that Mauritius will not open to South African flights, nor to Southern African travellers on January 1, and advised that the travel ban has been extended to January 31, 2022.
The early January opening had been the fervent hope of agents, tour operators and customers, including those with bookings held over from the aborted 2019/2020 season.
Having initially reopened to South Africans (for the first time since the start of the pandemic) only on October 1 after its initial lockdown, Mauritius was quick to shut the door again by implementing arrival restrictions on its southern African neighbours in response to fears of the COVID variant, Omicron. The island’s government then cancelled all inbound flights from South Africa and its neighbouring states from November 28 until December 31.
The restrictions also apply to arrivals from Botswana, Zimbabwe, Lesotho, Namibia, Eswatini, Malawi, Mozambique and Zambia.
