Rwanda is counting on the aggressive expansion of its national carrier RwandAir to grow its tourism revenues in 2012, as the airline launches new routes and direct flights in the coming months.

The national airline last week took delivery of its second Boeing 737-800, bringing its fleet to seven aircraft, including two CRJ200 and a Dash 8-100.

The PTA Bank financed the acquisition of the two aircraft at a cost of $60 million, a deal that was arranged by HSBC and guaranteed by the United States Export Import Bank.

The fleet expansion will take care of the airline’s growth allowing it to operate the recently announced additional frequencies to Dubai. These flights will be the first direct service from Kigali to Dubai.

The Rwanda Development Board (RDB) says RwandAir’s expansion and the recent launch of several directs flights to Kigali from European capitals by global airlines will give a much needed boost to tourism.

RwandAir recently signed a memorandum of understanding with Turkish Airlines that will see the two carriers collaborate closely on schedule synchronisation, code sharing, technical support and training.

“With this increase of airlines and RwandAir’s new destinations, we are realising our strategy of becoming a regional hub,” Rica Rwigamba, RDB’s head of tourism and conservation told The EastAfrican.

This year, KLM launched direct flights to Kigali from Amsterdam while Turkish and South African airlines are expected to launch flights next year.

This, Ms Rwigamba said, has solved the major challenge of international visitors accessing Rwanda.

“We have seen specific interest in terms of visitors — between June and August we had approximately 41 per cent increase in people coming by airlines compared with last year when we had less airlines.”

During the first six months of 2011, the country received 405,801 visitors, a 28 per cent increase, generating $115.6 million in revenue compared with almost $90.6 million generated in the same period last year.

Last year’s tourism revenue grew by 14 per cent to hit $200 million, showing a steady recovery from 2009 when the global financial crisis dented visitor receipts across the region.

Tour and travel agents in the country also say RwandAir’s expansion will boost the tourism and hospitality sector as it will increase attractiveness of Rwanda as a tourism destination with more direct flight connections.

“We are already seeing increasing interest from tourists specifically in Europe after RwandAir received their first Boeing; our agents particularly in Germany are sending us more tourists,” said Betty Bukarani, of Primate Safaris, a Kigali-based tour and travel company.

Ms Bukarani added that the absence of direct flights to and out of Kigali had denied the country potential tourists.

“Previously tourists have had to rely on connecting flights mainly by Kenya Airways and SN Brussels with limited choices — this discouraged them from coming to Rwanda. But with RwandAir’s new routes, already we are seeing our revenues going up by about 30 per cent.”