RwandAir & Rwandan Aviation News 2021

[rwandan-flyer]

Air Malta will operate its longest non-stop flight in its history in terms of flight time and distance. They will send an A320Neo 9H-NED to Kigali tomorrow morning, to send vaccines against covid19:https://www.independent.com.mt/articles ... 6736237540

If you want to follow on FR24: the aircraft will depart Malta at 2 am on Friday morning and land at Kigali at 9:00am. Flight KM7510

On October 08, 2021, Governement of Slovakia also sent a plane (Antonov 26) to Kigali (delivery of vaccines against covid19): https://slovakaid.sk/en/slovensko-darov ... onavirusu/

Otherwise tomorrow, RwandAir will return to Goma (DR Congo). Goma was served at the end of the 2000s via Kamembe (Rwanda). Conference of the Rwandan ambassador in DR Congo. While waiting for the modernization of Gisenyi airport (Rwanda), tourists wanting to go to Gisenyi can fly to Goma and then cross the border to Gisenyi (not even 10km)


"Press briefing in the tourist town of Goma on the launch of the airlift between Goma and Kigali by Rwandair for tomorrow October 15, 2021. Rising and win-win bilateral cooperation. There are no more neighbors and integrated than Goma & Rubavu "

A RwandAir A330-300 at Amsterdam on 09oct21

[sn26567]

RwandAir wants to acquire a first cargo aircraft to benefit from the boom in the cargo industry. A freighter may be leased from Qatar Airways as an option.

[rwandan-flyer]

RwandAir wants to acquire a first cargo aircraft to benefit from the boom in the cargo industry. A freighter may be leased from Qatar Airways as an option.

So they could lease a B777F ? Cargo operators struggles to fill their cargo planes from Rwanda to the world. Level of export is quite low in Rwanda.

Wait and see

Air Malta A320Neo at Kigali, this morning

4 pix took by the Maltese Foreign and European Affairs Minister

If you wnt to track the return flight to Malta. It will leave Kigali at 23:10, this evening




1st flight to Goma (or return of RwandAir at Goma) by RwandAir today.

[rwandan-flyer]

Kigali airport in the 1980s. During this period, the airport was served by Sabena, Air France, Kenya Airways, Air Zaire, Air Burundi, Air Rwanda; Uganda Airlines, Air Tanzania and Aeroflot.

Pix: Cliff Mugisha



Here are some facts about the airlines that you can see in this photo:

PB 201: It was an Air Burundi flight, operated by a Twin Otter.

RA 109: It was an Air Rwanda flight, operated by a Twin Otter.

ET 825: in the 1970s and in the 1980s, Ethiopian operated a weekly Addis Ababa - Kigali - Luanda (Angola) connection, with a Boeing 727. Ethiopian Airlines started its flights to Kigali, in April 1975. It is the airline which has been serving Rwanda for the longest time (with a suspension in mid-1994, due to the Genocide against the Tutsis)

KQ471: this is a Kenya Airways flight, operated with a Douglas DC-9. This flight number is still used by Kenya Airways in 2021

AF 483: Air France started flights to Kigali, in 1972, from Paris Orly, in B707, via Cairo and Addis Ababa in Boeing 707.

Paris-Cairo-Addis Abeba, Kigali and return to B. 707. Nov. 1972 (French Civil Aviation Authority archives: (page 6) https://www.siv.archives-nationales.cul ... _IR_012783




Then, Kigali was served by Boeing 747 (Bujumbura could accommodate the 747).

"1982: Paris-Nairobi-Kigali-Bujumbura in a Boeing 747

In 1982, Air France provided every Monday the Paris-Nairobi-Kigali-Bujumbura connection by Boeing 747, Bujumbura airport now being accessible with this aircraft. "Air France tells its African story https://actufinance-fr.translate.goog/a ... tr_pto=nui

Air France operated special flights to Kigali, with the Concorde. AF deleted its 1994 line, at the start of the Genocide against the Tutsis.

My first plane flight was in 1988: Kigali-Paris with Air France in B747 followed by Paris CDG-Montpellier (France) in Air Inter A300

SU 445/446: from the 1970s to 1999 (ii thnik), Aeroflot served Kigali, using mainly the Tupolev 154M. In the 1980s the route was Moscow Sheremetyevo- Simferopol - Cairo - Nairobi - Entebbe - Kigali

[sn26567]

Thanks for this nice historical review, Rwandan-Flyer. With all the intermediate stops, some airlines must really have had long travel times.

[rwandan-flyer]

Thanks for this nice historical review, Rwandan-Flyer. With all the intermediate stops, some airlines must really have had long travel times.

In deed, i will post Sabena B707 pics at Kigali, in 1970s

According to theroutenetwork, RwandAir should start its flights to Doha at the earliest, on November 1, 2021 but hey, that will logically be December 2021).

3 Flights per week in B737-800

The flights are scheduled to nab RwandAir connections in the direction Kigali rest of Africa and in the direction rest of Africa Kigali. Qatar Airways plans to return daily to Kigali from December 2021. So we should be at 10 flights per week between KGL and DOH.

RwandAir with a very late departure from KGL will arrive 2 hours after the flight of Qatar Airways (KGL-EBB-DOH) to Doha and will arrive 2 hours before the flight Qatar Airways (DOH-EBB-KGL) to Kigali, allowing RwandAir to have lot of pax transiting via Doha on its African network.

Dest available via KGL: Johannesburg **, Cape Town **, Abuja **, Lagos **, Bangui, Libreville, Cotonou, Bujumbura, Nairobi **, Entebbe **, Kinshasa, Kamembe, Lubumbashi, Dar Es Salaam **, Goma, Kilimanjaro **, Lusaka **, Harare **, Goma, Brazzaville.

** destinations served by QR and RwandAir

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Code share request filed to the American authorities. Paid access, so we don't know the cities

:

On the QR site, we have clues on US cities or non US cities that will be in code share: Bujumbura, Douala and Kinshasa served by RwandAir appear.

"
Flying to Africa and beyond

Fly safely with us to Africa and connect seamlessly with our partner RwandAir, benefitting from convenient options and enhanced connectivity through their hub in Kigali.

Flying from Africa?
Flying from Kigali

Begin your journey with our partner RwandAir and then let us take you even further to more than 140 destinations within our expanding network.

With Seattle, Chicago, but also Paris, Nice and Lyon (via BCN with Qatar Airways and Vueling), which will be probably among 65 destinations under WB (RwandAir) code share. For Nice and Lyon, when Qatar Airways will land there

https://www.qatarairways.com/en-rw/part ... LL32451830

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More flights on the Kigali-Harare-Cape Town

Hybrid route with RwandAir sends its CRJ 900, but also its A330-300

RwandAir Compilation At Cape Town International Airport 737 738 332 333 CR9: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pTCyI8pga9c&t=370

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Rwanda has been a big player in air traffic liberalization in the last decade, and this is one reason why airline traffic in and out of Rwanda has grown so strongly. Air traffic in Rwanda is forecasted to grow 7.3% annually between now and 2038. Aviation directly contributes US$100 million annually to Rwanda’s economy and another $850 million indirectly.

https://simpleflying.com/saatm-africa/

[rwandan-flyer]

According to theroutenetwork, RwandAir should start its flights to Doha at the earliest, on November 1, 2021 but hey, that will logically be December 2021).

3 Flights per week in B737-800

Reservations open on the Qatar Airways site. Flights should start from December 03, 2021

Code share flights with Qatar Airways, which allows RwandAir customers to reach their final destination on a oneworld airline, as below:

KGL-DOH-SFO-LAX: RwandAir + Qatar Airways + Alaska Airlines



Or finish the trip with the SNCF (French Trains) because Qatar Airways has code share agreement with SNCF:

KGL-DOH-CDG-XZJ (Montpellier, France where i have lived from late 80s till early. Family still living there)

[rwandan-flyer]

Rwandair adds flights for Christmas on London and Brussels. Note that Rwanda is no longer on the Black List of the United Kingdom and the EU.

In 2019, the number of British who visited Rwanda was 16,000. What is low if we compare to Tanzania or Kenya. But for a country that has not been colonized by the British and who has not developed mass tourism, it's ok. And i think that they are even ahead Belgians (former colonial power) and in front of the Indians (logically 3rd) and behind the Americans.

Traffic between Heahtrow and Kigali was 23,000 pax per year (all airlines combined): https://www.routesonline.com/news/29/br ... k-lax-cun/

These are 3 English-speaking countries that are the largest market for Rwanda, outside Africa. Rwanda which first of all is a French-speaking country

The country also removed quarantine on arrival. We win about 15 hours. Indeed as soon as we do the test at the airport, the results arrive within 24 hours. But sometimes less. Arrival at 19h in Kigali and the results arrive around 12h the next day.

I noticed that a flight on Brussels is operated without the tag with London (see Oct 261) https://www.flighttradar24.com/data/aircraft/9xr-wp

More Kigali-Brussels-London Flights on the Cards https://www.tourismupdate.co.za/article ... ghts-cards

Talking about of Indians, Kigali-Mumbai-Kigali flights seem to be fully loaded. The 737-800 make a technical stop in Mombasa in both directions. The aircraft can not operate at full load between KGL and BOM. Before Covid the flight sometimes had a stopover in Entebbe, but it was rare.

The 737max back to Rwanda with Turkish Airlines. Note that FR24 displays the flights in Code Share and I had forgot that Rwandair has code share with Turkish Airlines (IST-KGL) and Ethiopian (KGL-Add)

Bangui served in CRJ tagged with Brazzaville added the KGL-Bangui-Douala routing in B737-800

[rwandan-flyer]

theaeronetwork
@theaeronetwork

Rwandair from 01DEC21 to codeshare on following Qatar Airways' service in the US:

Boston, Chicago O'Hare, Dallas/Ft. Worth, Houston, Los Angeles, New York JFK, Philadelphia, San Francisco, Seattle, Washington Dulles

https://twitter.com/theaeronetwork/stat ... 2982092800

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It’s more economical for airlines to operate with new aircraft–RwandAir country (Nigeria) manager, Karamage

https://punchng.com/its-more-economical ... -karamage/

One of the biggest market for RwandAir which serves Abuja and Lagos



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Interview with the director of RwandAir Yvonne Manzi Makolo, on the IATA website: liberalization of the sky in Africa, women staff in the aviation, projects for RwandAir, ....

Senior management needs more women

https://www.airlines.iata.org/analysis/ ... more-women


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Kamembe Airport can now handle flights at night. The airport is located on the border between DR Congo and Rwanda.

The KME-Kigali link is mainly used by tourists who are going to visit the Nyungwe forest in southern Rwanda or by Businesswomen and Men or Humanitarian workers going to Bukavu. The big city of South Kivu (800,000 inhabitants).

The advantage of night flights will allow RwandAir to perform evening flights. This will reduce the connection time between Kamembe and the rest of the RwandAir network. It takes at least 12 hours of connection in Kigali if you want to go to South Africa, Dubai or Belgium via Kigali from KME

A nice cessna Caravan landing seen from the Kamembe control tower

Kamembe in the 1950s, when we still said Rwanda-Urundi (now Burundi) and Usumbura (now Bujumbura) was the capital.

DC-3s, De Havilland DH.104s and 1 De Havilland DH.114 Heron) for most of those from Sabena who operated sub-regional flights to Usumbura or the Belgian Congo. The DC-6s were too big to go to Kamembe and therefore fly to Brussels.

More photos here (in French): https://www.flickr.com/photos/pgkivu/al ... 9890409247

Source 'Guide du Voyageur au Congo Belge et au Ruanda-Urundi' version neerlandophone, édition 1958 - Collection Gilbert Delepierre



Collection Guy Bastin

[rwandan-flyer]

JamboJet, the low cost of Kenya Airways has again postponed the resumption of its flights to Rwanda, due to still weak demand due to restrictions. Before the Covid, the airline operated 1 flight per day (a flight that replaced the mid-day flight operated by Kenya Airways). Kenya Airways operated daily in the morning and evening, we had 3 flights per day (4 in summer). In total with RwandAir, there were 6 to 7 flights per day between Nairobi and Kigali.

Now KQ does 5 flights per week to Kigali.

Jambojet puts off plan to resume direct Entebbe, Kigali flights Jambojet managing director Ndegwa Karanja said with the stringent Covid-19 travel regulations in the two East African nations, the carrier does not have plans to resume flights in those destinations soon .: https://www.businessdailyafrica.com/bd/ ... ts-3615876

Hopefully demand will pick up again, because Kenya Airways is the most expensive company in Africa and routes to East Africa are among the most expensive in the world, while East Africa is one of the . poorest regions in the world. With the arrival of JamboJet and competition from Uganda Airlines, Air Tanzania and RwandAir one could hope for a significant drop in prices.


East African states work to reduce regional air travel costs: EAC has one of the most expensive flight routes in the world per seat costs led by the Nairobi to Entebbe, Nairobi to Kigali and Nairobi to Dar es Salaam routes . https://www.theeastafrican.co.ke/tea/bu ... ca-3532554

The 9XR-WP made its "routine trip" Kigali-Amman-Kigali . . Maintenance in Amman. RwandAir occasionally sends its B737s and A330s to Jordan, for minor maintenance.

A Rwandan pilot working for RwandAir (co pilot on A330) had taken some photos of a RwandAir B737 in Amman, last year

https://www.instagram.com/p/CE3bb9kALgv ... 1KgweI_80/

[rwandan-flyer]

RwandAir carried 277,942 pax in fiscal year 2020-2021 compared to more than 856,167 in the previous fiscal year.

Source MININFRA (page 6): https://www.mininfra.gov.rw/fileadmin/u ... 0-2021.pdf

Interview with the CEO of RwandAir in the East African

We learn that RwandAir has suspended (surely definitely) its "thinner" routes: Juba (South Sudan), Dakar, Abidjan and Tel Aviv.

Although the company still has not posted positive results and it is unlikely to be the case this year. We learn that flights are starting to fill up again on the Kigali-Kamapala and Kigali-Mumbai routes (currently operated in A330 / B737-800 mix) ** after months of suspensions.

The route to China was the best performing before the covid (filling or revenues? Or both?)

Flights to Lagos and Dubai work well. The focus is on the cargo ops. Some news said that it was possible to see Qatar Cargo leases a plane to RwandAir (so a B777F)

Sky wars: Uganda, Tanzania, Rwanda carriers expand as Ethiopian, KQ falter [/ b] https://www.theeastafrican.co.ke/tea/ne ... -carriers- expand-as-ethiopian-kq-falter-3625402

As East Africa's leading carriers Ethiopian Airlines and Kenya Airways grapple with financial and politically instigated crises, regional carriers Air Tanzania, Uganda Airlines and RwandAir have laid out plans to eat the big boys ’lunch.


** Not everytime that we see 3 East African airlines leaving almost at the same time (outside Africa), here in Mumbai. RwandAir's A330 obviously does not stop at Mombasa

[sn26567]

As East Africa's leading carriers Ethiopian Airlines and Kenya Airways grapple with financial and politically instigated crises, regional carriers Air Tanzania, Uganda Airlines and RwandAir have laid out plans to eat the big boys ’lunch.

As a matter of fact, the Belgian Ministry of Foreign Affairs recommends not to fly to Addis Abeba, even in transit.

https://diplomatie.belgium.be/en

[rwandan-flyer]

An article on Qatar Airways' Africa strategy published by Jeune Afrique in October 2020 is now open access. I put the part that talks about RwandAir.

Basically RwandAir can theoretically fly between Doha and Kigali, replacing QR, it will depend on the business plan.



https://translate.google.com/translate? ... n-afrique/

It's now official, Qatar Airways has closed its Kigali Doha route after 9 years of operations in Rwanda and will therefore transfer it to RwandAir

Qatar Airways has assigned RwandAir to Kigali-Doha https://mobile-igihe-com.translate.goog ... BE.twitter

QR's last flight to Kigali was yesterday and so all other flights are showing canceled, like tonight's. Surely to avoid cannibalizing the RwandAir route. The route is operated in code share with QR. Rwandans are quite patriotic, they will be happy to be able to travel with RwandAir on a route outside Africa.

They can benefit from it via Dubai (Interline with Emirates), Brussels (code share with SN on the KGL-BRU route operated by SN, but which also benefits WB which can pick up SN pax on its BRU-KGL route, thanks to the interline with SN)

TK now operates 2 flights per week with A330-300 to Kigali, instead of one. The Saturday-Sunday flight and now the Wednesday-Thursday flight. The flights are night flights. The other days it's B737NG / MAX

3 flights to Asia operated by RwandAir this evening: Dubai, Doha and Mumbai (via Mombasa)



"Remembering" QR in Rwanda

My flight in 2014 (CDG-DOH-KGL-DOH-KGL-CDG). Longest single-aisle flight for me (+ 7h with a commercial stopover at Entebbe), exceeding a CDG-Ilho Do Sal in 1999 in a B757 from Cabo Verde Airlines with my middle school in Montpellier (South of France) and a CDG Luxor in an A320 from Lotus Air with my mother in 2003 .

[sn26567]

Bad start for Rwanda's flights between Kigali and Doha: cancelled today!

[rwandan-flyer]

Bad start for Rwanda's flights between Kigali and Doha: cancelled today!

In deed but it seems that flights was finally operated (or it was a ferry flight), while on FR24 and HIA airport flight was shown as canceled

[rwandan-flyer]

Hamad International Airport welcomes RwandAir's direct flights from Kigali to Doha https://www.rwandair.com/media-center/n ... i-to-doha/

Kagame rallies Africa on single Africa aviation market https://www.newtimes.co.rw/news/kagame- ... ion-market

Mixed reactions about this speech. Even if indeed Kagame made good things for Pan-Africanism. He made the speech, while Rwanda suspended flights to Southern Africa due to the new variant

AFRAA has published its 1st post covid report for a full year (2020) I focused on RwandAir https://afraa.org/wp-content/uploads/20 ... -final.pdf

In 2020, RwandAir transported 346,000 pax (more than 1,000,000 in 2019). But all the Africa traffic part is missing ( regional traffic by AFRAA).



About Load Factpr, 55% for RwandAir (p74 https://afraa.org/wp-content/uploads/20 ... -final.pdf). Rare, but they are ahead of Ethiopian: shock:



About Freight, on the international RwandAir is rather well ranked. ahead Tunisair, close with Air Mauritius and not "too" far from Royal Air Maroc. I am quite skeptical about to develop a Freight activity at RwandAir (we are talking about a possible leasing of a QR Cargo device from RwandAir). But it's not that bad. there is a growing market in Africa.



Kigali is one of the 20 most important airports for freight

[rwandan-flyer]

As of December 25, 2021, RwandAir will no longer accept pax from Nigeria, Kenya, Tanzania and Ethiopia to Dubai https://twitter.com/FlyRwandAir/status/ ... 4714820617

Heavy fog over Kigali this morning, 2 diversions on Entebbe for the A330s from Dubai and London / Brussels. But I guess the flights from Doha, Mumbai (via Mombasa) have surely been diverted

I think aviations actors in Rwanda can't wait for the opening of Bugesera Airport which will enables to make "all weather" landings

Qatar Airways has placed its QR code on RwandAir flights departing from Kigali:

Lagos, Brazzaville, Libreville, Bujumbura, Kilimanjaro, Kinshasa, Nairobi, Dar Es Salaam, Abuja, Douala, Harare. The RwandAir Kigali Doha line is operated under code share with RwandAir.

Etihad appears to have removed its EY code on Kigali Nairobi operated by Kenya Airways and put it on the Cairo-Kigali route operated by Egyptair

British Airways which had its code BA on the Doha-Kigali route operated by QR, has its code on the Nairobi-Kigali route operated by Kenya Airways

The RwandAir network including cargo destinations.

Brussels, Dubai, Kinshasa, Mwanza (RwandAir already operated a few flights to Europe last year by A330 pax) and Guangzhou could be the first cargo destinations for RwandAir

09/2020: RwandAir seeks to acquire freighter https://www.aircargonews.net/airlines/r ... freighter/




Infographic of the arrival of the A320Neo at Tunisair. We see African destinations including Kigali (Rwanda signed an air sky agreement with Tunisia last year). I do not know if it is only to illustrate the capacities of the A32Neo or if it is about destinations that Tunisair hope to serve in the medium term even if they are currently in phase of restructuring.

it could be this:

Tunis-Kigali-Bujumbura
Tunis-Entebbe-Nairobi
Tunis-Addis Ababa-DJibouti
Tunis-Libreville-Kinshasa
Tunis-Kinshasa-Luanda

[rwandan-flyer]

The UAE have put a large part of East African cpuntries on the red list (including Rwanda) because of the Omicron variant, RwandAir must suspend its flights to Dubai. Hard blow, Dubai had been one of their best performing destinations for the past few months.

There are still RwandAir flights to Doha to then put the pax on Qatar Airways between Doha and Dubai.

https://twitter.com/FlyRwandAir/status/ ... wtr%5Etrue


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𝗦𝘆𝗹𝘃𝗶𝗲 𝗕𝗔𝗜̈𝗣𝗢 𝗧𝗘𝗠𝗢𝗡 (Minister of Foreign Affairs, Francophonie and Central Africans Abroad of the CAR.)

#Istanbul 3rd edition of the Turkey - Africa Summit

Wednesday December 15, 2021

■ Madame le Miniistre was received by Mr. Bilal Ekşi, President of Turkish Airlines. Discussions focused on the need to extend Turkish Airlines airline service to Bangui in the Central African Republic.

A fruitful exchange with a cooperation acted in two stages: cooperation with Rwandair in order to make available, as soon as possible, a Bangui-Istanbul connection. This first stage will be the subject of a point d step in order to provide a direct service to Bangui Istanbul.


#CentrafriqueDiplomacy #DiplomacyRCA

https://www.facebook.com/DiplomatieRCA/ ... 4546947099 (French)

[rwandan-flyer]

An article on Qatar Airways' Africa strategy published by Jeune Afrique in October 2020 is now open access. I put the part that talks about RwandAir.

Basically RwandAir can theoretically fly between Doha and Kigali, replacing QR, it will depend on the business plan.



https://translate.google.com/translate? ... n-afrique/

It's now official, Qatar Airways has closed its Kigali Doha route after 9 years of operations in Rwanda and will therefore transfer it to RwandAir

Qatar Airways has assigned RwandAir to Kigali-Doha https://mobile-igihe-com.translate.goog ... BE.twitter

QR's last flight to Kigali was yesterday and so all other flights are showing canceled, like tonight's. Surely to avoid cannibalizing the RwandAir route. The route is operated in code share with QR.