Rwanda’s national flag carrier, RwandAir, will start direct flights to Gatwick Airport, London on May 26, airline officials have said. The airline will have flights between Kigali International Airport and London three times a week, according to John Mirenge, the RwandAir chief executive officer.

"We are delighted to enable new and seamless connection between London and the whole of our network, offering customers a differentiated product in terms of comfort, good customer services and affordability,” Mirenge said on Tuesday.

Gatwick is the second-busiest airport in the United Kingdom after Heathrow.

London, one of the world’s leading financial centres, will become RwandAir’s first European and second long haul route.

The destination will be served by the Airbus A330 aircraft that boasts of in-flight connectivity. RwandAir is scheduled to start flights to Harare, Zimbabwe and Mumbai in India on April 1 and 3, respectively.

When flights on the three routes begin, the airline’s network will expand to 22.

Flights to Harare will be daily and tagged to the existing Lusaka (Zambia) route, while the national carrier will operate direct flights on the Mumbai route, four times a week. Mirenge said the airline will enter more markets soon, including Conakry, Guinea, Bamako in Mali, as well as Dakar, Senegal, Lilongwe in Malawi and Durban, South Africa. Presently, RwandAir operates 19 destinations, including Nairobi, Entebbe, Mombasa, Bujumbura, Lusaka, Juba, Douala, Dar es Salaam, Kilimanjaro, Cotonou, Johannesburg, Dubai, Lagos, Libreville and Brazzaville.

The IATA Operational Safety Audit (IOSA) certified airline also plans to start flights to New York, in the United States this year as part of its strategy to serve more global markets.