RwandAir’s Boeing acquisition set for March

Carrier set to resume Johannesburg flights next month Hardly two months after taking delivery of its new aircraft, the national carrier RwandAir, is expecting to acquire the 767 and 737-800 Boeing fleet in March. Jack Ekl, the carrier’s Chief Operation Manager said that the airline is keen on deploying more capacity and increasing its frequencies to these destinations with the expected acquisition of the fleet. “We will soon be communicating our 2010 World Cup offers with the resumption of the Johannesburg Direct” Ekl added Ekl also revealed that the national carrier is also set to launch flights to the port city of Dar es Salaam via Bujumbura on the 2nd of February 2010. With the acquisition of their first 50 seater CRJs, the national carrier has released a new schedule effective February 2010 announcing direct flights into Johannesburg every Monday, Wednesday, Friday and Sunday. The four weekly flights which beginning February 3, 2010 will maintain the daylight operation with departures from Kigali set at 1430HRS (Local Kigali Time). Kigali bound flights will depart from Johannesburg at 1900HRS (Johannesburg Time). Prior to the temporary suspension last year, RwandAir Kigali-Johannesburg direct flights had gained popularity as being the most affordable and direct way of accessing east and central Africa from Johannesburg especially for travellers from the Americas, Australia and South East Asia. The national carrier has also announced the launch of flights to the Tanzanian port city of Dar es Salaam via Bujumbura beginning February 2, 2010. The early morning flights will depart from Kigali International Airport at 0700HRS (Local Kigali Time) every Tuesday, Friday and Sunday while the direct to Kigali return flights will depart from Julius Nyerere International Airport Dar es Salaam at 1100HRS (Dar es Salaam Time). Also the recently, the carrier announced its plans to operate scheduled flights to Goma and Kinshasa in the Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC) in the first quarter of 2010. By 2013, the airline is expecting to have a combined ‘owned, operated and maintained’ fleet of six aircrafts including a 160 seater Boeing aircraft. Also early this week, officials at the national carrier revealed that privatization of state-owned airline is still on. Officials said that the carrier is currently undergoing major reforms which include the recent acquisition of its first own aircrafts as well as staff recruitments. Ends

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RwandAir’s Boeing acquisition set for March