Kottler Masoko
Senior Member
- May 28, 2010
- 193
- 28
[h=1]RwandAir where dream has turned into reality[/h]
Image via airwaysmag.com
BY DR. WOLFGANG H. THOME, ETN UGANDA | MAR 03, 2013(eTN) - While in Rwanda last week, news emerged from the corridors of RwandAir, that Accra, Ghana, will become the airlines 15th destination by the latest in June of this year, adding yet another West African gateway to Lagos, Libreville, and Brazzaville. The move shows that the expansion drive of Rwandas national airline is continuing unabated, buoyed no doubt by the governments commitment to throw its full support behind it, budgetary constraints notwithstanding.
RwandAirs CEO John Mirenge is also on record that during the remainder of the year additional destinations will be launched, among them Juba, Zanzibar, and either Lusaka or Harare or perhaps even both combined. In the latest edition of INZOZI, RwandAirs in-flight magazine, he says: We are the fastest-growing airline in Africa. It is both challenging and exciting. The challenge is that we are joining long serving giants in the market. The exciting part is that we are doing so really fast. We are happy to begin 2013 with bilateral agreements signed with Kenya Airways to join our efforts in a number of areas of our operations on short and long-term basis.
The ambitious growth plans will be further aided when in April this year the airlines two B737-500 will be returned to the lessors GECAS at the end of the lease agreement and be substituted against two more recently built B737-700ERs, acquired from Germanys TUIfly.
The change will not only add a few more much needed seats but primarily extends the operational range as the two older Boeings faced limitations on the longer routes for instance to Dubai, Johannesburg or Lagos while the much younger B737-700s can fly these routes with full passenger and cargo load.
Further expansion of destinations and frequencies is envisaged for 2014 when very likely the two options for another two Bombardier CRJ900NextGen will be turned into firm orders, ahead of the delivery of two B787s due by 2015 and 2016.
President Paul Kagame himself reiterated his governments commitment to RwandAir when he answered a question by this correspondent last Wednesday at his monthly meet the media session. He outlined that Rwanda would in due course seek a strategic investor in RwandAir to spread the financial exposure wider through a public private partnership and then allow freed funds to be used for other, equally important infrastructure projects like the new Bugesera airport and the railway link from Kigali to Tanzanias Isaka.
With this level of support from the highest office in the land, it is no wonder that RwandAirs top management oozes confidence and can honestly say that the dreams of the past have now been turned into the reality of the present, also ably expressed in the upcoming change of the tagline from Fly our Dream to the Heart of Africa to soon read From the Heart of Africa.
[h=2]More Articles[/h]
BY DR. WOLFGANG H. THOME, ETN UGANDA | MAR 03, 2013(eTN) - While in Rwanda last week, news emerged from the corridors of RwandAir, that Accra, Ghana, will become the airlines 15th destination by the latest in June of this year, adding yet another West African gateway to Lagos, Libreville, and Brazzaville. The move shows that the expansion drive of Rwandas national airline is continuing unabated, buoyed no doubt by the governments commitment to throw its full support behind it, budgetary constraints notwithstanding.
RwandAirs CEO John Mirenge is also on record that during the remainder of the year additional destinations will be launched, among them Juba, Zanzibar, and either Lusaka or Harare or perhaps even both combined. In the latest edition of INZOZI, RwandAirs in-flight magazine, he says: We are the fastest-growing airline in Africa. It is both challenging and exciting. The challenge is that we are joining long serving giants in the market. The exciting part is that we are doing so really fast. We are happy to begin 2013 with bilateral agreements signed with Kenya Airways to join our efforts in a number of areas of our operations on short and long-term basis.
The ambitious growth plans will be further aided when in April this year the airlines two B737-500 will be returned to the lessors GECAS at the end of the lease agreement and be substituted against two more recently built B737-700ERs, acquired from Germanys TUIfly.
The change will not only add a few more much needed seats but primarily extends the operational range as the two older Boeings faced limitations on the longer routes for instance to Dubai, Johannesburg or Lagos while the much younger B737-700s can fly these routes with full passenger and cargo load.
Further expansion of destinations and frequencies is envisaged for 2014 when very likely the two options for another two Bombardier CRJ900NextGen will be turned into firm orders, ahead of the delivery of two B787s due by 2015 and 2016.
President Paul Kagame himself reiterated his governments commitment to RwandAir when he answered a question by this correspondent last Wednesday at his monthly meet the media session. He outlined that Rwanda would in due course seek a strategic investor in RwandAir to spread the financial exposure wider through a public private partnership and then allow freed funds to be used for other, equally important infrastructure projects like the new Bugesera airport and the railway link from Kigali to Tanzanias Isaka.
With this level of support from the highest office in the land, it is no wonder that RwandAirs top management oozes confidence and can honestly say that the dreams of the past have now been turned into the reality of the present, also ably expressed in the upcoming change of the tagline from Fly our Dream to the Heart of Africa to soon read From the Heart of Africa.
[h=2]More Articles[/h]
- United commences Accra flights
- RwandAir resumes Mombasa stop for Dubai flights
- Kenya Airways and RwandAir at verge of forming major partnership
- Ghana warns tourists to avoid unlicensed hospitality facilities
- New West Africa venture may point the way for Air Uganda
- First destination member from Ghana joins ICTP
- Ghana domestic tourism promotion yielding good results
- US citizen abducted in Benin
