I wasn’t expecting to locate an excellent lounge in Africa, but were pleasantly surprised by the Air Mauritius Amédée Maingard Lounge in the Mauritius airport. In my experience, the lounges in Africa have been hit and miss over the last twenty years. Thanks to a new build airport, Air Mauritius has taken an upper floor level and transformed the space into a bright and airy location that makes it one of Africa’s top lounges.

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Review: Air Mauritius Amédée Maingard Lounge, Sir Seewoosagur Ramgoolam International Airport, Mauritius

“The flagship Air Mauritius Business Lounge featured Duval Leroy Champagne, along with spacious lounge seating, high ceilings and a pleasant vibe with stellar apron views..”

We filled up our rental car with gas at the Engen petrol station one roundabout away from the Sir Seewoosagur Ramgoolam International Airport. They took credit cards with a small bank fee for the credit cards (15 MUR) and it was 530 MUR for 15 L (about $1.31 a litre). We returned the rental car to Sixt without any problems and after a quick visual inspection, we were on our way to the new Sir Seewoosagur Ramgoolam International Departures building.

In May 2013, Mauritius completed construction of a new terminal building for all international departures. The goal was to handle Airbus 380 traffic and connecting traffic – developing Mauritius as a hub to connect with Air Mauritius through the South Indian Ocean. The end result is one of the most spacious and pleasant airport experiences as most of the current traffic consist of smaller jets with the occasional wide body jet. Connection traffic at the moment appears to be almost non-existent. It’s easy to say that Mauritius clearly have the lead on Indian Ocean airports that we’ve visited, having been fortunate enough to call in at the Maldives, and the Seychelles at various times throughout our lives.

The Air Mauritius Amédée Maingard Lounge is the Business Class Lounge and flagship lounge for the flag carrier of Mauritius. Air Mauritius also now operates a second lounge for Air Mauritius Premium Lounge; which is targeted for pay per use economy class departing passengers and transit passengers.

Checking into South African Airways:

We entered departures “Hall A”. we headed over to the South African Airways check in desk where we were mandated by line dragons over to the computerized kiosk to check in. After the process was completed, we were permitted over to the South African priority check in baggage drop to leave our bags. Our luggage’s were accepted and our hand baggage was marked with “Cabin Baggage” tags. A small plastic sign at check in indicated that buy up’s to business class were being offered on today’s flight.

We were given a hand written lounge invitation to the Air Mauritius Amédée Maingard Lounge near gate 28.

Locating the Air Mauritius Amédée Maingard Lounge:

The Sir Seewoosagur Ramgoolam airport experience was similar to being in a private terminal as few other flights were departing at 10 AM. We passed through a deserted outbound passport control and deserted, near private, security check point. We were the only ones present aside from the screeners and the immigration police. 

Proceeding through a large duty free shop, we made our way to the Amédée Maingard Lounge. The lonuge is located to the right of security towards the end of the departures concourse. We were pleasantly surprised with what we found.

Accessing the Air Mauritius Amédée Maingard Lounge:

The Air Mauritius Amédée Maingard Lounge is the flagship international lounge for Air Mauritius. Access this lounge is available for Air Mauritius Business Class passengers and Air Mauritius Kestrelflyer Gold members. Air Mauritius Kestrelflyer Gold is received after flying 100,000 qualifying miles.

Passengers travelling with partner airlines and those who are members of partner airport lounge access programmes are also invited to partake of the lounge facilities, subject to eligibility. As they say, th lounge was accessed today courtesy of our business class ticket on South African Airways. South African Airways had contracted with Air Mauritius for the use of this lounge.

The lounge is also a member of Priority Pass and therefore can be accessed through a Priority Pass membership as a stand alone membership, or accompanied by select high end credit cards.

Inside the Air Mauritius Amédée Maingard Lounge:

The Air Mauritius Amédée Maingard Lounge is split into two levels. The main entry level is called the Tamarin Lounge and the more upscale lounge upstairs is called the Chamarel Lounge. The lounge has won several awards from the World Travel Awards as the best lounge in the Indian Ocean Zones for the years 2014 – 2019; six years running.

At check in, our invitation and boarding cards were reviewed and accepted. At the time of our visit, according to the Air Mauritius lounge website, they were also accepting cash visits for economy passengers on Air Mauritius for 2,000 Mauritius Rupees ($67 USD). 

After we had checked in, a host came up to us after check in and encouraged us to visit the upstairs. The upstairs really impressed us with a brand new facility. If you are a lounge lizard like we are, then I’d encourage you to arrive early and leave yourselves enough time to enjoy this space. 

Chamarel Lounge – Level 2:

The lounge was absolutely humongous and the upstairs was completely deserted. We were the only ones present, enjoying space likely built for almost 150 occupancy. The lounge was decorated in attractive colors with a paper airplane décor overhead. There was abbundant natural light and a view of the ocean. 

A Dedicated Children’s Area:

Similar to South African Airways lounges in South Africa on Johannesburg and Cape Town, there was also a dedicated kids area on the upper level.

Food and Beverage in the Lounge:

There was Champagne Duval Le-Roy was on pour from the upstairs bar, in addition to several French whites and reds. This was impressive to me as aside from the Etihad Pearl Business Lounge in Abu Dhabi, United Arab Emirates, I haven’t found many business lounges serving champagne. 

Tamarin Lounge – Level 1:

Rounding out the tour of the lounge, the downstairs level offered a full snack buffet, and also most of the passengers in a windowless space.

The downstairs was similar to any windowless lounge made slightly a bit brighter by a green wall. Surprisingly, this appeared to be the place where most visitors hung out, too dis-interested to take the elevator to the better place upstairs.

After a few glasses of champagne, we headed over to Gate 18 for the next leg of our adventure.

The Bottom Line: Air Mauritius Amédée Maingard Lounge:

The Air Mauritius Amédée Maingard Lounge was a wonderful surprise. We weren’t expecting access to such a nice facility when departing Mauritius. Instead, we were treated fine champagne, a pleasant atmosphere and comfortable space to relax in prior to departure. This has to easily be my most favourite lounge in both Africa and the Indian Ocean zones thanks to the comfort and quality of furnishing. It’s easily a winner so make sure you allow for a little extra time on your trip through Mauritius to get spoiled with your visit.

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