Rwandair targets 6 new routes, plans other fleet acquisitions

Currently the airline has a fleet size of three aircrafts including Boeing 737-500, which it recently leased from Air Namibia. It has a capacity of 88 seats in economy and 20 seats in business. Rwandair Express is planning to open up new routes to Dar es Salaam, Addis Abbaba, Mwanza, Lusaka and Kinshasa, by next year. Management of the government owned carrier made the revelations on Sunday during a business dinner with the company’s travel partners from South Africa. Rwandair officials said the move is a result of increased demand from the clients as more people are opting for air transport. It is also part of the airline’s plans of increasing its services to meet customer expectations. “There is much traffic in these areas”, said Jimray Nangawe, Rwandair’s Head of Revenue Management. The inclusion of the new routes will put Rwandair’s destinations to a total of fourteen in a period of six years since its inauguration in December 2002. Currently Rwandair fleets fly from Kigali to Nairobi, to Kilimanjaro, Entebbe, Bujumbura and Johannesburg. Within Rwanda, it operates a direct flight from Kigali to Kamembe, in the north of the country, but Nangawe said they will open the Gisenyi destination by next month. In the same development, Rwandair is undergoing an aggressive and ambitious fleet acquisition that will serve the new destinations. Currently the airline has a fleet size of three aircrafts including a Boeing 737-500, which it recently leased from Air Namibia. It has a capacity of 88 seats in economy and 20 seats in business. It also has a CRJ 100LR, operating on the Kigali-Nairobi and Kigali –Entebbe routes with only 50 economy class seats. The DH8-100, is a turbo prop aircraft operating on Kigali-Kilimanjaro, Kigali –Bujumbura, Kigali –Entebbe and Kigali –Kamembe with capacity of only 37 seats in economy. “There are a lot of things that we could improve that are essential to our activities. There is a lot to do in order to favourably compete on the regional market. We need to look at our products and pricing,” said Rwandair Executive chairman Gerard Zirimwabagabo. Rwandair Express is compliant with international regulations unlike many African airlines. It is a registered IATA member, and has passed the IATA Operational Quality Standards (OQS) audit. The airliner is already IOSA compliant. IOSA is a safety standard of IATA. The company is trying to conclude a process of fully acquiring these IOSA standards. IOSA takes an audit of all your procedures as defined by IATA. They bring in people to audit all your operations. With Rwandair they started late last year and will be done mid next year. Ends

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Rwandair targets 6 new routes, plans other fleet acquisitions