RwandAir & Rwandan Aviation News 2026

[rwandan-flyer]

RwandAir in 2020
RwandAir & Rwandan Aviation News 2021
RwandAir & Rwandan Aviation News 2022
RwandAir & Rwandan Aviation News 2023
RwandAir & Rwandan Aviation News 2024
RwandAir & Rwandan Aviation News 2025

As it does every year, Rwanda has published its statistical yearbook. Although the title says 2025, the data is for 2024. The data includes both Kigali and Kamembe.

The 30,000 domestic passengers figure refers to the Kigali-Kamembe domestic route, operated once a day with a Q400 aircraft. Trafic is not very high; however it's interesting that the situation at the border between the Democratic Republic of Congo and Rwanda hasn't caused a significant drop in traffic (we will see for 2025). This route is used by NGOs, Congolese people traveling to or from Bukavu (DR Congo), and tourists visiting the Nyungwe Forest in Rwanda.

The number of transfer passengers is almost back to pre-COVID levels. International passenger numbers have, for the first time, exceeded one million, despite route closures to Cape Town and Mumbai and reduced flights to Dubai. But Ethiopian Airlines has increased its service from two to three flights per day, Kenya Airways has added flights (up to four per day), and Brussels Airlines has switched to daily service.

For 2025, authorities are projecting 1,500,000 passengers, relying on increased RwandAir frequencies to other destinations (Lagos, Johannesburg, Harare, and Lusaka), the launch of routes to Zanzibar and Mombasa, the return of Qatar Airways, and the arrival of Badr Airlines (Sudan). They seem confident despite the closure of routes to Abuja, Brazzaville, and Cotonou (these destinations disappeared from RwandAir's inflight magazine this month). The CRJ aircraft are also no longer part of the WB fleet.

About new airlines, Asky, Royal Air Maroc, and Salamair (Oman) have expressed interest in operating flights to Rwanda. However, no launch dates have been announced.

https://alpha.statistics.gov.rw/statist ... l-yearbook

[rwandan-flyer]

RwandAir has retired one B737-800 9XR-WQ. This aircraft was delivered new in 2016, leased from ALC. The aircraft will go to Garuda Indonesia.

It seems that the airline now provides 6 flights a week to Zanzibar / Mombasa iso 4 times. Although for the week only from 16th to 22nd, i have found only 4 flights. I guess it's linked with February winter holidays in France, UK which are top markets for ZNZ abd MBA on RwandAir network (outside Africa). South Africa is also a big market for ZNZ and MBA (RwandAir operates 2 flights a day to Johannesburg).


Qatar Airways has its QR code (code share with RwandAir) on the Kigali Zanzibar Mombasa route. Qatar Airways serves Zanzibar, so you can fly between Kigali Doha via Zanzibar. I can imagine someone making Tokyo Doha Kigali (only with Qatar Airways) and back with Kigali Zanzibar (RwandAir), then Zanzibar-Doha-Tokyo with Qatar Airways

[rwandan-flyer]

RwandAir appears on the Jeddah airport website with its terminal assignment. Another Hajj flights to come or future scheduled flights. https://www.kaia.sa/Flights?tab=2

Kenya Airways is also listed, assigned to Terminal 1. Is this a return of Kenya Airways to Jeddah? The airline closed its route in the 2000s, before relaunching flights in 2011 (https://www.tourismupdate.com/article/k ... dah?page=2) and closing it again in 2018 (https://www.tourismupdate.com/article/k ... dah?page=2), leaving its SkyTeam partner, Saudia Arabian Airlines, to operate the flights alone. SV serves Nairobi with an A330-300 and offers its SV code on Kenya Airways flights to Africa.

Airports of Rwanda (RAC) @RwandaAirports Feb. 5
The High Commissioner of Rwanda to Singapore, H.E. @IBMuhizi, alongside MD @habonima and CEO of @FlyRwandAir Yvonne Makolo, met with executives from the Changi Airport Group to discuss air transport cooperation. The meeting took place on the sidelines of the Changi Aviation Summit and the Singapore Airshow. https://x.com/RwandaAirports/status/2019325977424457780

Note that the Changi Group has been providing consulting services to Kigali Airport for 10 years. This is surely one of the reasons why Kigali is among the best airports in Africa. https://www.changiairport.com/en/cai.html (You need to scroll down the page and you'll see a world map with a dot on Kigali)

[rwandan-flyer]

A new cargo plane is apparently operating in Kigali. SolitAir, which already serves a large part of East and Southern Africa with B737-800F departing from Dubai DWC (https://www.flightradar24.com/data/flights/sh807), has flights scheduled for February 18th, 20th, and 22nd, which looks like a regular service.

September 25th (KGL is not mentioned): SolitAir Expands Global South Network with New Africa Routes: https://africanpilot.africa/solitair-ex ... ca-routes/

The airline competes with RwandAir Cargo, which operates from Sharjah and Dubai DWC (the two aircraft were flying together yesterday, see the screenshot below).

As of March 28, 2026, Qatar Airways plans to reduce its flights to Kigali. Kigali will be served twice a week, instead of four times a week, still with the A320. There will no longer be flights on Fridays and Sundays. RwandAir continues to fly six times a week with the B737-800 between Kigali and Doha.

For the summer season, KLM (reducing from six to four flights per week), Brussels Airlines (reducing from seven to six flights per week), and Qatar Airways will offer fewer flights to Kigali than last summer. Ethiopian, Turkish Airlines, Kenya Airways, and EgyptAir will maintain stable service. Oman Air and its two weekly flights are still pending, but bookings are not yet open.

Also, RwandAir currently serves Brussels once a week instead of three times, still via Paris. Paris is still served three times a week, but the other two weekly flights are operated via London. I've asked someone for more information; I'm waiting for their reply. My hypothesis is that flight occupancy rates on the Brussels route are low for several reasons. One could be due to the poor relations between the two countries, with the closure of embassies and the end of all cooperation, whether diplomatic or related to Belgian and Rwandan NGOs.

Although visa is still possible, there may also be fewer Belgian tourists in Rwanda. Brussels Airlines alone could capture a portion of the point-to-point demand. RwandAir doesn't have much to offer passengers from Brussels Airlines connecting through Kigali, apart from Burundi. Point-to-point demand for Paris flights is increasing with the normalization of relations between France and Rwanda, and RwandAir now serves Zanzibar (currently once a day instead of four times a week) and may have picked up some passengers on the Bangui route since Air France ceased its flights. This has allowed RwandAir to offset the losses incurred by closing its routes to Brazzaville and Kinshasa. London provides RwandAir with point-to-point passenger services, as well as flights to Zimbabwe, Nigeria, and East Africa.

[rwandan-flyer]

RwandAir passenger and cargo flights to the UAE and Qatar are suspended. Qatar Airways flights are also suspended.

On the day the flights were suspended, three RwandAir B737-800s were in the Middle East. Two aircraft were able to depart shortly before the situation deteriorated.

The B737-800 Cargo 9XR-WW took off in the afternoon from Sharjah to Kigali https://www.flightradar24.com/data/aircraft/9xr-ww. I see that RwandAir Cargo now serves Juba (South Sudan).

The B737-800 9XR-WR, which was operating the Doha-Kigali flight, took off shortly after 9:00 AM https://www.flightradar24.com/data/aircraft/9xr-wr

Both aircraft were making a short stopover.

However, the B737-800 9XR-WG was making its day stop in Dubai, so it wasn't possible to depart that same day. It departed for Kigali on March 3rd. https://www.flightradar24.com/data/airc ... g#3e920c16

The consequences for Rwanda are difficult to imagine. But Qatar and the UAE are two of Rwanda's trading partners. The UAE is its largest partner, with over $1 billion in trade. Dubai is Kigali's top destination outside of Africa in terms of demand.

The UAE is Rwanda’s leading trade partner. Rwanda-UAE total trade exceeded USD 1.5 billion in 2024, up from the mere USD 100 million in 2012. https://www.rwandainuae.gov.rw/cooperat ... ooperation

For Qatar, firstly, regarding flights, there will be no more opportunities to offer flights to Doha in partnership with Qatar Airways. Then there are also investments in the new Kigali airport and the still pending acquisition of Qatar Airways' 49% stake in RwandAir. Currently, Qatar has other, more pressing matters, and it's unclear what state Qatar Airways will be in when flights resume. We're almost a week since the closure of the airspace.

Approximately 2,000 Rwandans live in the United Arab Emirates, just under 30 in Bahrain, and between 500 and 1,000 in Israel (https://allafrica.com/stories/202603040097.html). There are 2,100 in Oman (https://www.instagram.com/p/DSF-vsziOAJ/?img_index=1).

[ZavCity]

Rwandair flight RWD700 to BRU is operated by EuroAtlantic A330 CS-TGD since last week..Reason?

[ZavCity]

Lately some flights to BRU were canceled again..Technical problem at one of the doors here in BRU it seems..Got a bunch of friends flying them (replacement for QTR) to Johannesburg:no info fromRWD..Spent 2 nights in different hotels and than saturday evening 11 PM they were told the flights were canceled..Saw that RWD is now sending today an extra flight on the repaired aircraft...Very bad experience!

[rwandan-flyer]

RwandAir but Rwanda are dealing with customer service issues since many many many times. Things are not really moving fast.

They expend RwandAir fleet quickly, the country is a growing destination for the tourism, in term of efficiency in public sector Rwanda is one of the best country in Africa, but the customer service is really bad.

They can make good PR duing Customer service week (showing that you the best African Airlines by SkyTraxx is not enough), but the behind the scenes is not green.

Several factors can explain that:

Rwanda is a fattest growing country, but 20-25 years ago not many people visited Rwanda or used RwandAir. Customer service was not a cultural thing And there were not hospitality or aviation schools. They sometimes hired foreign people. But with the growth of tourism and aviation, Rwanda needed to invest into customer service . The goof thing is now Rwanda has now hospitality and aviation school to train many local staff. However still lots of work ahead

Laziness or Indifference

Working conditions. At RwandAir, there is a huge turnover in some offices in some others departements.

There's also a lack of strict penalties for repeat offenders.

However some private companies or states agencies have good customer service. About Kigali Airport, there are really less complaints than RwandAir (https://www.google.com/search?client=fi ... PoiReviews & https://www.airlinequality.com/airport- ... i-airport/)

There not good reviews but most of them were put 9-10 years ago https://www.sleepinginairports.net/revi ... eviews.htm

[rwandan-flyer]

I confess I'm a bit confused. SalamAir is launching flights to Kigali starting September 1, 2026, twice a week. In 2018, Oman Air planned to serve Kigali within a few years, then SalamAir was slated for 2024, then Oman Air again for 2026, and now it's SalamAir once more.

https://www.aeroroutes.com/eng/260417-ovsep26af

Is this due to the merger of Oman Air and SalamAir carried out by the Omani government last month?

Oman Government Completes Acquisition of SalamAir https://aeromorning.com/en/oman-governm ... -salamair/

Nevertheless, an interesting deal was signed this week between Rwanda and Oman.

Oman Airports Signs MoU with Rwandan Firm to Boost Aviation Cooperation https://caa.gov.qa/en/news/oman-airport ... ooperation

To be honest, I'm a bit skeptical, especially with the use of the A321neo (even though the A320neo will also be used). The South Asia/Middle East-Rwanda market isn't nearly as large as for Uganda, Tanzania, or Kenya.

Ethiopian, with its three daily flights to Kigali (codeshare with Flynas & Etihad), and Kenya Airways, with its maximum of four daily flights to Kigali (codeshare with Saudi Airlines), already offer a good selection. Even EgyptAir, with its three weekly flights (codeshare with Etihad), offers good connections to the Middle East with layover times of just a few hours. Qatar Airways is currently reopening bookings for Kigali in mid-June 2026, but there's no official announcement. RwandAir flights to Doha and Dubai were also available.

SalamAir will be able to leverage Oman Air's European network, but it's uncertain whether that will be sufficient, although I certainly wish them success with this flight.

Like the Kigali-Juba-Port Sudan route, this is a niche market. In fact, the route is still operating. The Badr Airlines website has been updated, and bookings are now possible. The airline also announced in February 2026 the possibility of flights to Cairo (with a connection via Port Sudan), but it's currently impossible to book a single ticket.

https://www.instagram.com/p/DTTEelQjTUi/ Now your flight is easier with Badr Airlines Cairo Kegali Cairo
Weekly flights... An extraordinary experience

#badrairlines #sudan #بدر_للطيران #السودان #القاهرة #رواند

[rwandan-flyer]

Salamair flights are no longer available for booking. They were not available on the airline's website, but on other booking platforms. Has the airline reversed course (even though there haven't been any official announcements)?

Qatar Airways appears to be resuming flights to Kigali by the end of September 2026.

The Rwanda Development Board has published its annual report on tourism and aviation. Rwanda welcomed 1,490,000 tourists in 2024, compared to 1,360,000 in 2025. https://rdb.rw/wp-content/uploads/2026/ ... t-2025.pdf

We have learned that Mauritius has been the largest investor in Rwanda since 2020, with investments ranging from USD 135 million to USD 251 million. When will we see a Kigali MRU with RwandAir ?

Luxembourg is Rwanda's fourth largest export market (although the volume is low at USD 52.3 million). Luxembourg is investing heavily in establishing a financial center in Kigali, hence the opening of embassies (LUX in Kigali and RW in LUX). However, it's not certain that a Cargolux B747 could make its flights to Kigali profitable. On the other hand, Luxembourgish tourists, with their high incomes, why not? A few occasional flights (not regular, like 3-4 per year) via a tour operator would be interesting. Rwanda is an ideal target market. It seems to me that the Max 8s could fly to Kigali nonstop.

There has been a 23% increase in arrivals by air, which still doesn't represent the majority of arrivals. Whether local or international tourists (East African safaris including Kenya, Uganda, and Tanzania), many arrive by land. Despite the strained relations between the Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC) and Rwanda, the DRC remains Rwanda's largest market with 612,436 arrivals. However, a majority of these arrivals originate from the east, with some transiting through Kigali. They represent a significant portion of the transit market, and this is undoubtedly a contributing factor to the decline.

Most travelers come for business (which is good for airline yields ), but the country struggles to attract substantial passenger traffic. The number of tourists visiting for holidays has decreased, and VFR (Virtual Flight Rules) traffic is also declining. Yet the Rwandan diaspora is quite large if we take the Rwandan pop (between 400,000 and 500,000 live abroad https://thegreatlakeseye.com/post?s=Rwa ... pment_1236), but due to the local context in Rwanda (I'm referring here to the political regime), some simply don't travel. Abroad, there are still tensions within the diaspora, also stemming from the genocide against the Tutsis. Victims and perpetrators sometimes live in the same city... And whether they are victims or perpetrators, some of these people wouldn't feel safe in Rwanda (acts of revenge by residents, even if the number has been low for several decades).

** Total pop of Rwanda: 14 000 000

EAC: South Sudan, DR Congo, Kenya, Burundi, Tanzania, Uganda, Somalia. But they left the DRC out of it.





On the right, it's not the Kigali airport network, but RwandAir's network with its two codeshare partners (Turkish Airlines and Qatar Airways). It's worth noting that some destinations in Europe and the USA use the code WB with Qatar Airways and Turkish Airlines, so someone could end up flying LAX-Istanbul-Kigali-Doha-LAX with a RwandAir ticket, connecting through Turkish Airlines and Qatar Airways.

[rwandan-flyer]

750
No official announcement has been seen, but it seems RwandAir has begun a codeshare agreement with EgyptAir. Indeed, the Cairo-Kigali-Cairo service (via Entebbe on the return), operated by EgyptAir three times a week, is a codeshare with RwandAir.

Cairo is also served by RwandAir through codeshare agreements with Qatar Airways and Turkish Airlines.

It's quite interesting that the airline has three codeshare agreements with three Star Alliance members: Turkish Airlines, Ethiopian Airlines, and EgyptAir, as can be seen in the screenshot below. In the 2000s, Brussels Airlines was also part of the agreement, but it appears to have ended.

[rwandan-flyer]

Salamair flights are no longer available for booking. They were not available on the airline's website, but on other booking platforms. Has the airline reversed course (even though there haven't been any official announcements)?

Well, finally, the flights are scheduled to begin on July 21, 2026, subject to approvals. Two flights per week. I'm still skeptical about the route's success. However, for the moment, RwandAir hasn't announced a resumption of flights to the Middle East via Dubai and Doha (so there's no possibility of connecting via Doha with Qatar Airways to the Middle East and South Asia).

As I mentioned in another comment, Qatar Airways won't be returning to Kigali before September. Ethiopian Airlines will therefore be the main competitor (Kenya Airways has a smaller network). I don't think Turkish Airlines and EgyptAir will pick up many passengers via Istanbul Airport (IST) and Cairo International Airport (CAI) to and from the Middle East and South Asia. Europe is their main source of revenue to and from Kigali.

Oman’s SalamAir to launch direct flights to Kigali https://www.newtimes.co.rw/article/3530 ... -to-kigali

SalamAir Expands in Africa with New Direct Service to Kigali, Rwanda

Muscat-Sultanate of Oman,
April 30, 2026

SalamAir, Oman’s Low-Cost Carrier, has announced the opening of sales for its newest route to Kigali, Rwanda, further expanding its growing presence across the African market. Flights are set to begin on 21st July 2026, subject to regulatory approvals, with the airline operating two weekly flights between Muscat and Kigali on Tuesday and Thursday, offering passengers convenient and affordable travel options. One-way Lite fares on the route start from OMR 69.99, reinforcing SalamAir’s commitment to low fares and accessible travel. https://press.salamair.com/salamair-exp ... i-rowanda/

[sn26567]

Qatar Airways won't be returning to Kigali before September

It looks like Qatar Airways is very slow to resume flights after the Middle East crisis sparked by Trump. Emirates and Etihad are acting much faster.