RWANDA’s national carrier has announced that it will start direct flights between Kigali and Brazzaville, the capital of the Republic of Congo, beginning March, as the airline seeks to expand to the far west.
The announcement was first made during a state visit by President Paul Kagame to Congo Brazaville last November.
The new route comes as RwandAir’s eleventh destination, and the airline plans to be flying three weekly flights, on Tuesday, Friday and Saturday.
“We are planning to connect the East, Central African to West Africa and the new route is expected to add value to the business community and also create business opportunities to people of region and the republic of Congo,” RwandAir’s CEO, John Mirenge announced recently.
He explained that they are looking at growing the airlines network to the west and also support their existing routes especially Dubai.
Using a CRJ-200, the airline says it will transport passengers from DRC through their Kamembe-Kigali flight to Brazzaville “because getting a connecting to flight from DRC to Congo republic is almost impossible.”
Mirenge also predicted the airline would realize a 23 percent increase in passengers numbers from 13,000 to 16,000 in the following months.
The carrier has made great strides in its fleet acquisition process since last year and now has a combined total of five owned and wet-leased aircraft.
The airline further says the acquisition of two Boeing 737-800s will be complete with delivery by August and October respectively, this year.
