RWANDAIR SETS NEW DATE FOR NAIROBI FLIGHTS
(Posted 17th January 2015)
RwandAir’s General Manager Commercial, Mr. Mikael Gobena, yesterday afternoon confirmed that the long awaited flights between Entebbe and Nairobi, under fifth freedom licence from the Ugandan CAA, will now finally commence on the 29th of January.
The airline had wanted to operate on the route since they were handed fifth freedom rights in November last year by the UCAA but were receiving no joy from the Kenyan CAA which reportedly had gone out of their way to stall and delay approvals going right to the wire when two weeks ago they suddenly had issues with the slot times.
All is well what ends well comes to mind even though the Kenyan regulators behaved in an absolutely negative fashion towards the airline of a partner state, not just in the East African Community but as one of the Northern Corridor Cooperation countries.
Information received talks of initially one daily flight in each direction, the service leaving Entebbe at 09.00 hrs in the morning and taking off from Nairobi in the evening at 21.00 hrs, giving ‘day trippers’ ample time to complete their business in Nairobi. RwandAir will use one of their Bombardier CRJ900NextGen aircraft on the route, which offers both business and economy class sections. Fares are due to be released shortly and are expected to be very competitive, in line with RwandAir’s reputation as a full service but affordable cost airline.
RwandAir also serves Juba out of Entebbe under fifth freedom rights and has gained a significant market share on that route.
In a related development it was also confirmed that the airline will receive their second Bombardier Q400NextGen in a couple of months, raising the number of aircraft on their fleet to eight overall. The new bird will allow for further frequencies to a number of destinations in the region during off peak times and, when the work on the Kamembe runway is complete, a resumption of the daily flights from Kigali to Kamembe. Details on the 15 destinations served out of Kigali, flight schedules and other information can be accessed via www.rwandair.com
