One of Africa’s leading carriers is due to switch its London flights from Gatwick to Heathrow to benefit from important feeder traffic.
RwandAir will resume flights to and from London and Brussels to Kigali from 3 October as it reinstates its passenger network. The resumption of European services will see the respected African carrier switch its UK operations from London Gatwick, with commercial flights to the Rwandan capital now departing from London Heathrow for the first time.
The inaugural RwandAir service from Kigali to Brussels and London Heathrow will operate using an A330 twin-aisle aircraft. Flights will initially resume on a twice-weekly basis, before increasing to three-times-weekly from 25 October, reconnecting the UK with Rwanda for passenger and critical cargo operations.
Yvonne Manzi Makolo, CEO of RwandAir, said: “Now travel bans and restrictions are being relaxed, we can once again resume flying to and from London and Brussels, and look forward to welcoming customers flying from Europe back to RwandAir. We have been operating cargo and repatriation flights from London Heathrow during the pandemic and we are now delighted to operate scheduled passenger flights for the first time into and out of one of Europe’s premier airports.”
Ms Makolo also explained the move will significantly benefit customers flying into Heathrow from other UK cities who then wish to fly on seamlessly to Rwanda and other parts of Africa. The RwandAir CEO believes it has never been easier to reach Kigali or cities such as Nairobi, Entebbe, Lusaka and Harare for passengers travelling from London.
From 20 March 20 through to 31 July 3, RwandAir suspended all flights from Rwanda, with the exception of freight-only flights to China, to carry critical medical supplies to fight the COVID19 pandemic as well as other essential cargo. Since August 1, the airline has gradually resumed commercial flights across its global network, including select African routes, as well as some long-haul destinations such as Dubai.
RwandAir report they have been working to prepare for the return of its customers from around the world, and has published a Five-Step Health and Safety Guide to ensure a clean and secure welcome back on board. As it ramps up its passenger operations, RwandAir will continue to keep its schedules under constant review, so it can respond quickly and responsibly to customer demand – as well as the changing COVID-19 situation for travel.
Operating from Kigali, with its hub at the heart of Africa, RwandAir is one of the world’s fastest growing airlines and operates one of the youngest state-of-the-art fleets on the African continent. With a reputation for delivering a premium service to all its customers, RwandAir operates 12 aircraft with an average age of just under six years. The fleet includes one Airbus A330-200 and one A330-300, four Boeing 737-800s, two Boeing 737-700s, two Bombardier CRJ 900s and two De Havilland CanadaIt.
Despite the pandemic impacting networking expansion plans, the airline offers services to 29 destinations across 24 countries throughout Africa, Europe, the Middle East and Asia. RwandAir, joins regional competitors, including Ethiopian Airlines and Kenya Airways, who both fly from Heathrow. In September, RwandAir began offering three weekly flights to Dar es Salaam, the commercial capital of Tanzania, via Kigali. The Kigali-based carrier will fill the vacuum left by four of Kenya’s airlines Kenya Airways, AirKenya Express, Fly540, and Safarilink Aviation presently prevented from flying to Tanzania. The carrier also resumed services to Accra, Ghana with two weekly flights in September.
While the civil aviation industry experiences huge turbulence from the pandemic, the USD 1.3 billion construction of Rwanda’s largest airport, Bugesera International Airport, is still on course. The airport is expected to open for business in 2022 with the first phase of the plan expected to accommodate seven million passengers per year over ten years, while the second-phase expansion will be implemented to host fourteen million passengers per year for the subsequent ten years.
Top image: A Rwandair A330 taking off.
