RwandAir, the national carrier of Rwanda, is set to engage in a massive expansion of its route network as it awaits to take delivery of more aircraft in a bid to double its fleet.
This was revealed by the airline’s Chief Commercial Officer (CCO) Mr. Owie Andrew Best, in a press briefing earlier today at Legend hotel, Ikeja – Lagos.
According to the CCO, “Today we have fourteen (14) aircraft. We intend to double this fleet within the next five years, but first, we want to deepen our flights within our current routes”, he said.
The fleet of fourteen (14) aircraft consists of one A330-300; two A330-200s; B737-800s, B747-700s and Bombardier jets (CRJ-900 and Q400) which are operated on the airline’s regional and international routes.
In line with RwandAir’s vision to be the obvious choice of its clientele in the markets it serves, the airline is currently engaged in growing a robust code share network within and outside the continent.
RwandAir boasts seventy-four (74) active code share destinations spread between Qatar Airways, Ethiopian Airlines and Turkish Airlines; and ninety-three (93) other code share agreements currently being processed; while targeting to obtain as much as 250 code share agreements overall.
“Our goal is to make Kigali a very strong hub. It’s unfortunate that to fly within Africa, sometimes passengers will have to first fly to the Middle East or to Europe. The driving force behind our extensive code share policy is our desire to improve connectivity within Africa. If we cannot fly to any destination, there has to be a partner who does”, said Mr. Owie.
According to the airline boss, even though RwandAir is still fully government owned, change beckons, as plans are currently underway for Qatar Airways to own a 49% stake in the airline.
He went ahead to commend the Federal Government of Nigeria for ensuring that 98% of airlines’ trapped funds are repatriated. Losses were incurred in the process due to the massive shift in rate of the US dollar to the naira, but the airline took the loss in stride because of the relationship between the two countries:
“We’ve been very committed and supportive of the Nigerian market. We stayed, and refused to charge in USD at a time when other airlines began to do so. I commend the Nigerian government for repatriating 98% of industry funds, and ask that the remaining 2% be repatriated also, to help airlines completely recover because aviation operates within very thin margins”, he said.
With regards to tourism, the CCO divulged that the airline aims to make Rwanda not just a hub but a destination to be reckoned with, and called on the general public to take advantage of the visa free travel situation (for Africans) and visa on arrival (for non Africans) to visit Rwanda and enjoy the total hospitality experience provided by the airline.
He noted that RwandAir currently has an exciting loyalty program – Dream Miles, which works reciprocally in conjunction with other airlines whereby passengers can redeem miles either with RwandAir or a partner airline. The loyalty program also features Co-Branding, whereby RwandAir partners up with companies other than airlines, via which frequent fliers can accrue and redeem miles while shopping, for example.
In line with its mission to link Rwanda to the outside world via air transportation, RwandAir presently operates to over twenty-five (25) destinations within Africa, Europe and the Middle East. Ever since the airline began operating into Nigeria in October 2011, it has continued to grow by leaps and bounds. Currently, RwandAir operates four (4) weekly flights into Abuja and five (5) weekly flights into Lagos, but this is soon to change as the airline is set to commence daily flights into Lagos in the near future.
