RwandAir & Rwandan Aviation News 2023

[rwandan-flyer]

RwandAir will reduce from mid Jan24 to Feb2024 flights to Bru and Cdg from 3 to 2 times a week. For Winter, Lagos Kigali with RwandAir still 5 flights per week. For Winter, Kenya Airways keeps its 3 flights per day between KGL and NBO on Thursdays and Fridays. It will add a 3rd daily flight on Sundays

KLM cancels its planned daily flights to Kigali. The airline will serve Kigali 5 times a week next summer. KLM provided daily flight before covid. Probably the increase of capacity (more than before covid) from Turkish Airlines (some flights are optd by A330s), Egyptair which adds a 3th weekly and probaly competition from RwandAir (from London or via Doha) have an impact on KLM flights. Despite that the will have more A330s available with the end of flights to BAH and KWI. But it's quite early for the 2024 summer program

RwandAir Cargo B737-800F seen today at Amman from Kigali via ADD today to bring medical supplies, food and milk for Gaza. Note that RwandAir B737s and A330s come to Amman sometimes for quick check https://examiner.co.ug/world/president- ... palestine/

[rwandan-flyer]

The 6th B737-800 9XR-WY (12j + 144y) forRwandAir arrived this afternoon in Kigali. Including the only B737-700, RwandAir now has 7 B737-800s (+1 B737-800F), 3 A330s, 2 CRJ-900s and 2 Q400s.

https://www.timesaerospace.aero/news/ai ... 7-aircraft

Probably it will help to reopen the route to Mombasa and open the routesto Maputo, Luanda and Zanzibar. Addis Ababa was removed. Note the addition of code shares with Turkish Airlines, with the addition of Canada, Brazil, North Africa and "double code share services" with QR in the United States, Europe and Azerbaijan. Guangzhou was removed from the network.

About RwandAir Network : https://issuu.com/landmarine/docs/inzoz ... DYzNTE3MjE (p84) © RwandAir

[rwandan-flyer]

I made a mistake it's not 6 th B737-800, but the 5 B737-800 pax plus one B737-800F. Thus 6 B737NG (1 700 and 5 800) + 1 B737-800F

[rwandan-flyer]

n interesting study from FowardKeys. So this is the 4th quarter of 2023. Rwanda recorded the 2nd biggest growth in Africa compared to Q4 in 2019.

Belgium, the United States, the United Kingdom, Germany and France are the largest markets. Germany recorded growth of more than 100% and France of more than 67%. For Germany probably the beginning of a sponsorship effect from Bayern Munich, as well as the strong links between Germany and Rwanda and for France a Paris Kigali route effect with RwandAir, a sponsorship effect from Paris Saint Germain and the lifting of visas.

Unlike quite a few markets, Rwanda is mainly recording big growth in the premium segment (+ 37% vs 2019). The study concludes that there are opportunities to improve service, notably with direct flights to the USA (I don't really believe it even if the TSA was visiting Rwanda this week and Rwanda is Cat 1 of the FAA) and to Germany (more chance for me) based on the number of searches for flights to Rwanda, from these 2 countries.

https://forwardkeys.com/back-to-busines ... -318342497

Interview with the CEO of RwandAir, with a focus on the Middle East because the interview was published in an Emirati newspaper. Doha and Dubai are on average 70% full, with quite a few cargoes in Dubai. The company wants to increase frequencies as soon as possible. The company wants to open new lines in the Middle East, but the destinations are not mentioned. The O&D are low so it will clearly be connecting, even if with Oman there is a particularity apart from the economic context. Among the Afro Omanis living in Oman quite a few are from Rwanda and the majority of Rwandan Arabs are descendants of Oman

https://www.thenationalnews.com/busines ... 1699254437
​

[rwandan-flyer]

Big upgrade on the Kigali Nairobi routewith Kenya Airways today. 3 flights per day but the afternoon flight operated by B787-8 . It never flies to East Africa (only training flights during the first deliveries in 2014), only to Johannesburg, Port Louis, Cape Town and Lagos in Africa. There was Ursula von der Leyen on board (many people people are in Rwanda for the inauguration of the BioNTech vaccine factory in Kigali) and the passengers stranded due to the fog yesterday in Kigali have certainly not all been repatriated.

Nairobi is the first O&D for Kigali with 115,529 pax in 2019. Kigali is the 10th O&D for Nairobi (i.e. there are 3 domestic routes in the top 10).

But seeing a Kenya Airways 787 in Kigali, even in one day, I never would have imagined it.

KQ's 777s (and 767s) came to Kigali from time to time https://www.flickr.com/photos/georgeham ... Pxk-8UCQdy

[rwandan-flyer]

A RwandAir CRJ-900NG made a rejected takeoff this afternoon, following a tyre burst during the takeoff. No injuries. The aircraft was operating the Kigali Harare Cape Town flight. At that time it was operating the Harare Cape Town leg, with 65 passengers on board and 5 crew members.


The tyre was changed on the runway, which led to the closure of the airport with diversions to Bulawayo and Lusaka (Zambia). Airport has reponed few hours after.

The flight to Cape Town was canceled. The Kigali Harare Cape Town flight being daily, there should be 2 RwandAir planes tomorrow in Harare and unsurprisingly it will be a B737-800 (not regular sight like the A330 on this route). Don't know if the CRJ will return to Kigali or will make its flight to Cape Town

© Airports Company Of Zimbabwe

[Homo Aeroportus]

Tyre burst for sure but what was the root cause?

A bit like in some countries, having an argument with a person in uniform carrying a gun may result in a "cardiac arrest".

What is very likely to have occurred here is that a FOD, Foreign Object Debris, lying on the RWY, punctured the tyre, leading to its explosion.
This was a high-energy event where all the tyre casing plies suffered a sudden rupture. The "X" or wide open "V" cut is typical of this type of failure as described by GoodYear.

Rwandair Tyre :

GoodYear Aircraft Tire (americanese for tyre) Care and Maintenance Manual :

H.A.

[rwandan-flyer]

The aircraft was taking off, so probably a foreign object damage on the runway


Interview with the CEO of RwandAir in Jeune Afrique. No big scoop. The airline plans to

Expand the fleet from 14 to 25 aircraft within 5 years.

Increase the number of destinations, the airline hopes to add more routes: from 29 to 39 destinations within 5 years, mainly in Africa: Maputo, Zanzibar or reopen Mombasa. African regional routes are the "most profitable" for RwandAir (the airline has posted one profitable year in 20 years, it was in 2015: https://air--cosmos-com.translate.goog/ ... r_pto=wapp)

The USA still considered:

“Currently, we connect New York with Qatar Airways. We have access to around 13 points in the United States as part of code sharing, but discussions are continuing to see if we can do it ourselves in the future,” adds Yvonne Makolo.

Hire more and more local pilots. Out 198 pilots in the airline, only 35 are from Rwanda. Around twenty should join RwandAir very soon. Around thirty local pilots should be recruited next year. Expatriate pilots cost more.

About the partnership with Qatar Airways, the final stage of negotiations has just been reached. The arrival of Qatar Airways will allow RwandAir to have solid financial support and allow the company to finally become profitable. Qatar Airways, for example, is helping RwandAir to acquire new aircraft (this was the case for the 737-800F, 737-800 pax and the A330-200 all delivered this year, but it will include the future fleet).

Finally, RwandAir believes it has the capacity to face competition in Africa, particularly from LCCs.

https://www-jeuneafrique-com.translate. ... r_pto=wapp


Kenya Airways will offer 3 flights per day every day on its Kigali Nairobi route from June 2024. We have therefore returned to pre-covid capacities (even if the midday flight was operated by its LCC JamboJet). With RwandAir (https://aviationweek.com/air-transport/ ... rwandair-0), KLM is therefore the only airline which has still not resumed its pre-covid capacities in Kigali (5 flights per week in 2023 / 2024 vs 1 daily in 2019). The others airlines have returned to pre-covid capacities, or even exceeded them.