RWANDAIR SELLS TWO CRJ200 TO MAKE SPACE FOR LARGER JETS
News were just confirmed that RwandAir has sold, with immediate effect, their two CRJ200 aircraft which the airline had acquired two and a half years ago from Germanys Lufthansa Cityline.
The jets will leave service right away and the schedule, recently beefed up, will be adjusted until in June this year two additional regional jets will join the fleet.
RwandAir will remain with two leased B737-500, provided by GECAS, two owned B737-800 and one leased Bombardier Dash 8, provided by ALS in Nairobi.
Important schedule changes for the time being will be the reduction of flights to Nairobi from 3 per day to 2 per day, the reduction of flights to Dar es Salaam from presently 5 to 4 per week while all flights to West Africa, i.e. Brazzaville, Libreville and Lagos will remain as was. Flights to Dubai, 3 via Mombasa and 3 nonstop services from Kigali, will also not be affected.
RwandAir CEO John Mirenge had in a conversation with this correspondent in Abuja / Nigeria last month all but confirmed that they were looking at the CRJ 900 series to take the place of the CRJ 200, which in the meantime had become too small considering the risen demand.
However, the airline has not at this stage confirmed which type of regional jets would be acquired other than that the aircraft will be brand new and join the fleet by June 2012.
This development is in line with ambitious plans by RwandAir to connect the landlocked country comprehensively with the region, key destinations on the continent and by 2015/16 with intercontinental flights, as delivery of two B787 Dreamliners are expected by then.
In the meantime has RwandAir put code share arrangements into place to connect Kigali under an WB flight number with Brussels, Amsterdam, Addis Ababa and with a range of Turkish Airlines destinations, when that airline commences flights by April 2012. Watch this space for breaking aviation news from Eastern Africa and the Indian Ocean Islands.
