Transport in Mauritius

To cope with increasing road traffic congestion, a light rail system, Metro Express, was built between Curepipe and Port Louis.

When completed, the system covered a distance of some 25 km, with some 19 stations, many located in town centres along the route with existing transport terminals.

[4] At the beginning of 1860, the transport of passengers and goods was undertaken by about 2,000 horses, 4,000 donkeys and 4,500 carriages and carts.

In October of that same year, the Union Regnard sugar estate (Now F.U.E.L) received the first motorized truck of British origin, capable of transporting up to 5 tons.

)[citation needed] The first recorded flight taking off from Mauritius was undertaken on 2 June 1922 by Major F.W.

[1] On 10 September 1933, two French pilots, Maurice Samat and Paul Louis Lemerle, flew from Reunion Island to Mauritius on a Potez 43 plane called Monique.

On 4 October of the same year, a Mauritian pilot, Jean Hily, took off from Mon-Choisy for Réunion island.

On 24 November 1943, the first military airplane, a Dakota of the Royal Air Force (R.A.F) coming from Nairobi with a stopover at Madagascar, landed in Plaisance.

Thus, on 10 February of that year, a Junker 52 of the Réseau des Liaisons Aériennes Francaises (R.L.A.F), later known as Air France, landed in Plaisance.

As from 1947, it's DC4, transporting 44 passengers, undertook the Paris-Mauritius in 3 days, including night time flight, with 12 stops in between.

The following year, the British company SkyWays initiated a weekly flight on the Plaisance-Nairobi line.

In 1967, a Boeing 707, capable of carrying 160 passengers was introduced on the Paris-Mauritius line, decreasing the travel time to 18 hours.

[1] Initially, Mauritian civil and commercial aviation developed under the impulsion of Rogers & Co Company.

The aviation department within Rogers was created by Amédée Maingard on his return from the Second World War.