Did You Say Air Corridor?

Getting flights from Changi to Plaisance won't hurt us. But Mauritius is unlikely to become the bridge between Asia and Africa that politicians want us to believe. As far as air traffic goes. You just need to look at the current flight patterns -- save that link to see how they change as the day progresses.

Good to also note that most of the air trips in Africa are between countries on the mainland. Besides we'll not get any of the flights that originate from west of the Atlantic coast of Mama Africa.

And then there are Dubai and Tambo and many others.

But heh, don't worry. No one can beat us when it comes to the dumb depreciation of our currency.

Parakeet Gets Big New Home

Flying out of the recently inaugurated terminal at Plaisance these days feels like walking through a present. It smells new. On a gigantic scale. Plus courteous personnel will direct you to the right counter while you admire the building's imposing structure. Going through customs is pretty straight forward too and with all the new equipment around there is a simple message that this 57,000 square metre terminal -- or three times the Rashtrapati Bhavan --  is sending out: check me out! Add free Wi-Fi, more comfortable chairs, a lot more shops and restaurants definitely puts our national airport in an entirely different league. That's before taking in the heavenly views of Mauritius on display on the large windows.

Flying into the Terminal is good too. The wider corridors look very neat. One problem though is when you land in that huge hall where the passport officers are. You are not too sure where you need to go. That can and should definitely be improved. And you will have to bear with a bizarre parking design.

Overall the experience is quite nice. But we need to raise our game. By at least making arrivals as pleasant as departures. Fast.

Terminal 3 Launched To a Difficult Crowd

Not many applauses during the official ceremony for the new building. Though it has received a lot of positive reviews. Maybe because it wasn't done in either the global lingua franca or the language 84% of us speak at home. Or that beautiful language in which the PM delivers his press conferences and Independence Day messages.

If you are impressed by the amount of money it has cost us then you should definitely have a look at our debt servicing numbers since the bean-counting reforms of two university buddies started screwing up Mauritius back in 2005.

Let's hope T3 will help us climb a few notches up Africa's busiest airport (by passenger traffic) list: we've been oscillating between 18th and 20th for the past five years.