RwandAir ready to add four more flights to Johannesburg from 10th of June

RWANDAIR PREPARES FOR DAILY FLIGHTS TO JOHANNESBURG

Information was received from Kigali that RwandAir, the countrys national airline, intends to add 4 more flights on the route to Johannesburg, going daily from next month onwards with one traffic day seeing both a day and night flight. The new schedule comes into effect on June 10th.
South African Airways, absent from the route for some time, had earlier in the year commenced flights to Kigali, combined with Bujumbura in neighbouring Burundi, operating three times a week on the days RwandAir was not offering connections. Increasing demand on the route between South Africa and Rwanda, but also better connectivity out of Kigali on RwandAir to Brazzaville, Libreville and Lagos in West Africa, to Dubai now 6 times a week and across the Eastern African region, has clearly encouraged RwandAir to add more flights between the important South African market and The Land of a Thousand Hills.
With now 4 B737 in the fleet, two new B737-800 which were delivered in 2011 and two leased B737-500, and one Bombardier Dash 8-100 used for domestic and short regional routes, the airline is in the final stages of network and frequency expansion planning, due to come into effect when additional aircraft on order will be delivered, expected to be in Q4 of this year.
RwandAir has two brand new Bombardier CRJ900 jets on order and on Monday will see the presentation by Bombardier of their Q400 turboprop aircraft, which is presently on an Africa demonstration tour. There is speculation that RwandAir may use the presence of very senior Bombardier staff in Kigali to advance their negotiations on the potential purchase of one or more new larger turboprop aircraft, needed to serve the fast growing demand for seats between Kamembe, fed largely by travelers from neighbouring Congo, and Kigali but also for off peak flights to such destinations as Entebbe, Bujumbura and perhaps new destinations on their drawing board, but for competitive reasons too early to tell. Watch this space for regular and breaking news updates from East Africas vibrant aviation sector.