Editor, THAT’S A landmark worth celebrating for an airline that barely existed a short 15 years ago. John Mirenge (the CEO) and all his colleagues deserve accolades for bringing RwandAir this high this soon and ensuring a deliberate strategy of ambitious but prudent expansion. The bane of airlines in Africa has always been too much ambitious growth too soon unsupported by comparable financial, human and technical resources to sustain that growth, and too much political interference in the airlines’ daily operations. Stories are legion of flights being delayed while they waited for a tardy minister or another bigwig at the expense of paying passengers’ time and convenience and at the cost of turning the national airline into a running joke as far as their published schedules and reliability were concerned. The Government of Rwanda similarly deserves all the kudos for understanding the critical importance of an efficient airline service for a landlocked country like ours and providing unstinting support in the creation and growth of an airline we can all be proud of. Mwene Kalinda Reaction is made to the story, “RwandAir passes IATA safety audit” (The New Times, November 14)
