RWANDAIR CONSIDERING TO ROUTE FLIGHTS TO INDIA AND CHINA VIA DUBAI
(Posted 26th October 2015)
Information received from an aviation source in Dubai suggests that RwandAir, due to receive two Airbus A330 wide body aircraft next year, may consider routing the planned flights to Guangzhou and Mumbai via Dubai.
Plans by RwandAir to launch Mumbai flights, using a B737-800NG via Dar es Salaam, came to naught when the Tanzanian aviation regulators denied the airline fifth freedom rights, claiming their own national airline was planning to launch flights, a preposterous suggestion causing widespread amusement considering the moribund state of Air Tanzania.
The Airbus order however puts paid to that plan as RwandAir will be able to launch flights from Kigali directly to Mumbai, but given that the airline apparently holds fifth freedom rights out of Dubai, may it well be a viable option to route is East bound intercontinental flights via DXB and pick up additional traffic from there.
The source attributed the information to RwandAir’s Deputy CEO Mr. Jean-Paul Nyirubutama, who is in the UAE for the Dubai Air Show, where he reportedly spoke to the media.
To boost continental flights from across Africa, key to feeding traffic into their planned intercontinental services to China, India and Europe, will a further two Boeing B737-800NG SkyInterior be joining the fleet in 2016 as well, very likely staged to arrive prior to the two A330’s which are due in Kigali in September and December next year respectively. RwandAir presently serves the West African destinations of Brazzaville, Libreville, Douala, Lagos and Accra while in Southern Africa flying daily to Johannesburg, a flight which presently routes three times a week via Lusaka. In Eastern Africa does RwandAir serve Bujumbura, Entebbe, Juba, Kilimanjaro, Dar es Salaam, Nairobi, Mombasa and, as a sole domestic destination, Kamembe in the south east of the country at the border to Congo.
Dubai is served daily too with three flights routing via Mombasa, where the airline again has fifth freedom rights in both directions.
