BIRD TRAVEL BECOMES RWANDAIR’S GSA FOR INDIA
(Posted 12th July 2016)
Ahead of the December launch of flights from Kigali to Mumbai has RwandAir just announced the appointment of Bird Travels as their General Sales Agent for India.
Bird Travels already represents a number of high profile airlines and their market standing and expertise will no doubt come in handy for RwandAir to establish themselves as an airline of choice for Indian travelers to Kigali and beyond.
Among those already represented by Bird are Brussels Airlines – rumoured to be planning their own direct flights to Mumbai after Jet Airways pulled out of Brussels in favour of Amsterdam – but also Air China, Finnair, Avianca, Hong Kong Airlines, Garuda and others.
Said John Mirenge, CEO of RwandAir, when commenting on the development: ‘We have selected Bird Travel to position our brand, create awareness of our products and sell our services in this important new market. The new GSA, Bird Travel will use its vast experience and will be the immediate liaison for the airline’s sales development in India, including ticketing and direct support services to the travel trade‘.
The newly appointed GSA’s Executive Vice President Praful Khosla responded by adding: ‘Bird Travel is happy to be associated with RwandAir as their exclusive GSA in India. RwandAir is one of the fastest growing airlines on the African continent and has aggressive plans to connect India and Africa through their hub in Kigali, Rwanda. We look forward to a great working association with RwandAir and are optimistic of making their online operations a success‘.
RwandAir will be operating four weekly flights to Mumbai with its brand new Airbus A330-300, when this second aircraft is delivered in December with a three class configuration and overall carrying up to 274 passengers in a brand new Business Class section, a Premium Economy Class cabin – the first of any African airline – and a comfortable Economy Class section meeting the expectations long haul travelers today have.
As another novelty will passengers be able to access Wi – Fi as well as GSM connectivity across all three classes.
The first Airbus A330, a smaller -200 variant, is due for delivery in September and will be deployed initially four times a week between Kigali and Dubai though there has been some speculation that Lagos too may be added to provide a through service on a wide body aircraft for passengers out of Nigeria and destined to the UAE.
Watch this space for breaking and regular aviation news from the Eastern African region.
