Comoros Transportation

I saw this news item but have not seen any publicity for air comoros in france. perhaps they did not start?
Comoros gets new airliner in November

Air Comores aircraft

© ACI / afrol News
afrol News, 30 August - In November this year, Air Comores International will embark on its first regional and intercontinental flights. The airtransport company has already been established in Moroni, with capital from private and government sources in Comoros, from French airliners and with the "active participation" of Air Bourbon, the airliner of the French colony Réunion. Other Indian Ocean airliners face tougher competition.

Air Comores International has large ambitions of becoming a major airliner of the Indian Ocean region. Its destinations are to focus on France and French colonies in the Indian Ocean. Direct flights from the Comoran capital Moroni will include Paris and Marseille in France, the French islands Mayotte (in the Comoran archipelago) and Réunion, in addition to Mauritius and Dubai.

The airliner further has announced less developed plans to fly on several other regional destinations from Moroni. These include Antananarivo, Majunga and Nosy Bé in Madagascar, Zanzibar and Dar-es-Salaam in Tanzania and Nairobi and Mombassa in Kenya. While the schedules for the other destinations already are decided, these planned regional flights are still to be negotiated.

In addition to increasing flight access to Moroni, Air Comores International is to strongly enhance traffic to Réunion's southern city Saint Pierre. While Air Bourbon shuttles between Europe and the Reunionese capital Saint Denis at the northern point of the popular holiday destination, the new Comoran airliner is to serve Saint Pierre. In fact, all the decided-on international flights by Air Comores are to start in Réunion's Saint Pierre, while making a stop-over in Moroni.

Air Comores' large focus on Saint Pierre is derived from the key part plaid by Air Bourbon in the new airliner's establishment. The Reunionese airliner - which has its name from France's old royal dynasty and Réunion's first name, Île Bourbon - has taken part in the entire process of creating the new company, including security and service routines.

Air Bourbon itself, was only established in November 2002 with French and Reunionese capital. The company does not want to state the size of its economic interest in Air Comores, but this is believed to be substantial. In Moroni, Air Comores is even headquartered at the offices of Air Bourbon. The first official presentation of the new Comoran airliner was further made by Air Bourbon President Érick Lazarus at the Saint Pierre airport, Réunion.

According to the Reunionese press, Mr Lazarus this weekend said that launch of Air Comores in cooperation with Air Bourbon would create a synergy effect for the two airliners within "the spirit of regional cooperation." Réunion's southern city Saint Pierre would also highly profit from the new direct flights via Moroni. More than a quarter of Air Bourbon's customers were from southern Réunion, he added.

The objective of the new airliner, according to Mr Lazarus, is to open all the axes of traffic to Comoros and Mayotte and promote the "immediate development of the economy and the tourism sector" of the Comoran archipelago. The link to Réunion will assure that flights from France to Comoros are not empty while the troubled island nation tries to rebuild its tourism sector.

The new airliners Air Comores and Air Bourbon are entering a market that is increasingly fought over by national and regional airliners. The south-western Indian Ocean islands are a popular tourist destination among Europeans, in particular Mauritius, Réunion and Seychelles. Neighbouring Mayotte, Madagascar and Comoros all have plans to make tourism a key sector for economic development.

The new Reunionese - Comoran alliance is challenging the more established block of airliners that so far have dominated the region and have secured high prices from the region's top-end tourists. Air Seychelles, Air Mauritius and the French-owned Réunion-based Air Austral have for years cooperated in a regional network, even offering an "Indian Ocean Pass" to intercontinental passengers wanting to explore more than one island.

The regional block has however experienced problems due to increased competition lately. In April, Air Seychelles had to suspend its weekly flights to Comoros and Mayotte "due to a reduction in passenger traffic" and "substantial competition from other regional airlines operating more frequencies between Réunion and the Comoros and Mayotte." Air Seychelles had lost onwards customers to these islands, connecting from their direct France-Seychelles route.

The new combined network of Air Comores and Air Bourbon presents a challenge to older companies' regional networks and intercontinental connections as Moroni and Saint Pierre on Réunion are developed into new Indian Ocean hubs. Air Bourbon already has demonstrated an intention on competing on price, offering Paris-Réunion roundtrips from euro 522. The future success of a Moroni hub however remains to be seen.
Mayotte ferry suspended, new blow to Comoros tourism
afrol News, 23 December - French authorities on the island of Mayotte have suspended all ferry services linking the island with the rest of the Comoran archipelago due to safety negligence. Already, flight connections between Mayotte and Comoros are restricted, giving further blows to the planned development of tourism and trade in Comoros.

Mayotte, which is a Comoran island that insists on remaining French, is the major site of arrivals of foreign tourists to the archipelago, given its relatively good international connections. Many visitors to Comoros have used Mayotte as an entrance point for island hopping on the archipelago.

This option has now been barred by the French maritime authorities in Mayotte. According to local reports, the Comoran ferry connecting Mayotte and Grande Comore has been prohibited accessing the port of Dzaoudzi. Authorities for a long time had tolerated security flaws of the ferries, but continuous failures to comply with French standards finally saw the service suspended.

The reaction by Mayotte authorities comes after the 1 December accident on the ferry 'Ville de Sima', which was partly destroyed by a fire as it approached ht coast of Mayotte. This prompted maritime authorities to launch an inspection on the remaining ferries, which by far did not meet safety standards. Other passenger ferry services between Mayotte and Comoros had been closed for the same reasons earlier this year.

For the economic development of newly stabilised Comoros, the closure of one of the last connections with Mayotte is a major setback. The ferry services were important for trade between the islands and for the slowly developing tourism sector.

The suspension comes in addition to other setbacks in the infrastructure sector. Flights between Mayotte and Comoros have been stopped by Mahorais authorities for most of the last decade to prevent the substantial illegal immigration from Comoros. Equally, there are very few flights connecting the Comoran capital Moroni with the outside world.

The national airliner, Air Comore, was crippled by a disastrous attempt to privatise it in the end-1990s. Air France suspended its services to Moroni in 1997 and with the end of Air Comore, few connections remain. Most international connections now go via the French island of Réunion or via other regional airports.

In November this year, everything was going to change, with ambitious plans by Réunion's second airliner, Air Bourbon. Together with capital from Comoros and France, it was to launch the new Comoran carrier Air Comores International, based in Moroni. Air Comores was to connect Moroni directly to Paris, Marseille, Mayotte, Réunion, Mauritius and Dubai.

On 27 November, however, after the plans to launch Air Comores International already were delayed, Air Bourbon went bankrupt. The Reunionese company had invested too much, too rapidly in its ambition to become the Indian Ocean's principal airliner. Comoran authorities are looking for new investors to take the place of Air Bourbon, but have so far not been successful.

One of the main aims of the new Comoran airliner had been to promote the "immediate development of the economy and the tourism sector" of the Comoran archipelago. Comoros remains the Indian Ocean destination less developed for tourism, while neighbouring nations such as Seychelles, Mauritius and Réunion have become wealthy on the tourism industry.

Political turbulence, including around 20 coups and coup attempts since independence, has been the major reason for Comoros' failure to develop its tourism potential. As the new Comoro Union, with ample autonomy for the archipelago's three islands, is now established and political stability is planned for, Comoros aims at copying the tourism successes of its neighbours.

these are two pieces of news so it looks like you can get to moroni or mayotte easily from africa.. but between these two? i knew you could fly between the two towns

air austral flies both to moroni and mayotte.
please post if you get any more information

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