RwandAir Buoyant as it Plans to Add Three New Routes Next Year

The country’s national carrier that recently registered steadfast growth both in its passengers, fleet and destinations, looks at 2015 to post a positive outlook as it plans to open 3 new destinations.

The new destinations will bring more countries in the SADC bloc as well as West Africa, something that will   harness RwandAir’s   flight presence on the continent as it strives to   link Rwanda to   other markets.

Accordingly, the three routes for next year will   include Abidjan in Ivory Coast, Lusaka in Zambia and Harare in Zimbabwe.

Due to  Bilateral agreements the government of Rwanda  recently  penned  with  several countries on the continent and also  the regional  trading  blocs such as COMESA, EAC  has  opened the Rwanda market  to the blocs, thus a need  for  Air transport to facilitate  businesses.

This  translates into  more   people  willing to  fly  the skies to and  from  Rwanda to  the  rest fo the continent.

Thus, it  means,  as John Mirenge, RwandAir Chief Executive Officer  says  need  opening  more  destinations to  help  the private sector  ease  business across the skies thus  contributing to Rwanda’s economic growth.

For Example,  recent  growth in the passengers  flying within the region-East Africa and the West Africa  projects a  positive  outlook  in  terms of passenger numbers  and cargo  volumes for the  Airline.

“With our new operations to Mwanza, we are delighted to further strengthen our regional co-operation with the Republic of Tanzania,” said Mirenge

According to the Airline, the   passenger numbers increased 100,000 more as compared to last year, bringing more optimism that the new destinations will   add to the revenue receipts for the Airline.

The Airline is estimating its passenger numbers to   grow to over half a million passengers at the end of this year.

The growth in destinations and   passenger numbers has also   increased the airline’s fleet with acquisition of One Bombardier Q-400 NextGen early 2014 bring the total fleet to 7 birds.

Moreover,  the airline  plans to  acquire another Bombardier Q-400 NextGen and by 2016 to  have  Dreamliner as it plans to  open  its   fleet to the skies of Asia and Europe, thanks to the recent accreditation  by the  International  Air Transport  Association-IATA.

The green light from the Association means that the Airline now fulfills the   safety, control other   requirements to enable it fly anywhere in the world, something that also increases consumer confidence.

 Giving back to its Customers

Nevertheless, to  add to  the accreditation, the Airline also   introduced the  ‘Dream Miles’ programme, where it rewards  its ro6yal  customers with  more  miles and has registered 13,000 passengers over the past three years.

The campaign that encourages people to fly more with RwandAir has four categories named as gold, diamond, silver and emerald.

According to Dorah Kirezi, the Dream Miles project co-coordinator, passengers who click above 100,000 miles    for a year period are entitled for diamond with 100 per cent stage activity bonus.