RwandAir to introduce daily flight to Johannesburg

RwandAir will introduce daily flights to Johannesburg beginning next month due to increasing demand on the route, a top airline official disclosed yesterday. The national carrier is increasing frequencies to South Africa’s largest city by population to eight weekly flights effective June 10, 2012.“This is a way of adding more connectivity to our clients. Connecting to the West, East to the South,” RwandAir’s Chief Executive Officer, John Mirenge said in a phone interview. The move is set to facilitate business travellers who would rather travel during the night and have the day to do business. Mirenge also disclosed that the national carrier is set to add more frequencies to other routes and open more destinations as part of the airline’s expansion plans. The national carrier was serving Johannesburg’s route with four flights but had to increase the frequencies because of passenger demands according to Mirenge. “The four existing flights will be complemented by four night flights departing Kigali on Monday, Wednesday, Friday & Sun at 20:50 hrs and returning for Johannesburg on Monday, Tuesday, Thursday, Saturday at 01:30 hrs,” the airline said in a statement. Early this year, RwandAir sold off its two 50 seater CRJ200s to raise cash for acquiring bigger planes. The national flag carrier will this year be replacing the two small aircrafts with bigger ones to respond to the growing demand in the region and growth in passenger numbers, according to management. The airline plans to acquire the aircrafts with brand new Regional Jets. Regional Jets are short to medium-haul turbofan powered aircrafts, normally with capacity to carry between 70 and 100 passengers.RwandAir purchased the two CRJ200s in 2009 at the start of their fleet acquisition process. The airline secured a loan facility from the Eastern and Southern Trade Development Bank (PTA-Bank) to acquire the fleet it has now.The total loan, which is payable in10 years, is $85 million (About Rwf50.8bn).

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RwandAir to introduce daily flight to Johannesburg