The national carrier, RwandAir, has suspended its Kigali-Rubavu flights, citing losses.

The airline started flying Rubavu route two years ago, but has been unable to attract more passengers, exposing it to losses.
The Kigali-Rubavu route is one of the only two domestic destinations in the country after Kigali-Kamembe, all in Western province.
RwandAir operated six times a week flights and withdrawal of its services beginning November will see a 37 passenger seater Dash 8 aircraft deployed to another route.

The airline’s chief executive officer, John Mirenge, said the route had become unprofitable as operating costs outstripped the returns.

“The operation was not cost effective given the low numbers of passengers that we book for every flight,” said Mr Mirenge.
The airline targeted mostly Congolese business community from Goma town and other parts of eastern DRC flying to other destinations through Kigali International Airport.

An employee of RwandAir who works at Rubavu airstrip office and preferred not to be named, said most flights to Kigali have less than 10 passengers on board.

However, the management said the airline will still fly the Kigali-Kamembe route since the passenger numbers are relatively high.
The airline also attributed the pullout from Rubavu route to the small runway that is set for expansion.

“The runway is still small for the kind of aircraft that we have, so we want to take a break to allow expansion,” added Mr Mirenge.

While the standard measurement for an airstrip runway is two kilometres, the Rubavu runway is 1.1 kilometres and the Kamembe is 1.5 kilometres. Kigali Iinternational Airport, the only international airport in the country is four kilometres.

The airline has entered into an agreement with Kigali Bus Service (KBS), a public transport company to ferry passengers from Rubavu to Kigali International Airport, to catch flights to various destinations.

The return ticket of the 20 minutes flight to Rubavu from Kigali costs Rwf60,000.

Last week, RwandAir added to its fleet a brand new CRJ900 aircraft bombardier purchased from Canada.

The new aircraft has seven business class seats and 68 economy seats and will mostly operate in the East and Central African region.

It cost Rwandair over Rwf12.9 billion. The airline also plans to increase its fleet from the current six to 18 aircraft in the next six years.

“The additional aircraft will give us an edge over our competitors in the region. It will also increase efficiency in our services,” said Mr Mirenge.

The airline expects to receive, before the end of the year another new aircraft to enable it to introduce flights to South Sudan, Cameroon, Zanzibar and Zambia.

Albert Nsengiyumva, the Minister for Infrastructure, said acquisition of planes was in line with the government’s plans to expand aviation industry.

“Purchasing more planes will give RwandAir a competitive edge in a rapidly growing market and will also increase the number of passengers coming to Rwanda,” said the minister.

Rwanda’s aviation industry has experienced rapid growth, in recent years with more airlines adding Kigali to their destinations.
Recent entrants includes, South African, Qatar Air and the Turkish Airline.

Others operating in the country are SN-Brussels, KLM, Ethiopian Airlines, Kenya Airways and Air Uganda.

In the past three years, passenger traffic at Kigali International Airport has increased at a rate of 15 per cent per year. Currently, 400, 000 passengers use the airport annually.

The government has already awarded a contract to a Ugandan company to expand the airport estimated to cost Rwf12 billion.

The expansion is expected to ease pressure on the facility and to enable it to cope with the growing demand for space.

In addition, the government has installed security equipment in the airport to ensure safety of passengers according to international standards.

The government has also trained police officers to enhance security at the airport following the growing security threats in the region.