East African airlines are set for a bruising battle for passengers as carriers go bare knuckle in a new round of competition that pits the region’s flag carriers against their gulf counterparts.

Air Uganda and RwandAir have gone head-to-head on the Entebbe-Kigali route after the latter launched its own morning flight, effectively shredding their existing code-share partnership.

The duo had settled into an uneasy partnership with Air Uganda operating the day flight, while RwandAir the evening service on the same route.

“Although this is not in conformity with our agreement, for now we are not going to react in any way. We shall continue to focus on improving our product and giving customers a choice,” Air Uganda head of marketing Jennifer Musiime said in reference to the fact that RwandAir’s new flights are priced at an all-inclusive return fare of $235 compared to the $310 harmonised base fare under the code-share agreement.

Beside the price wars, which will most likely benefit passengers, the airlines have taken the battle to flight schedules with departures from Entebbe and Kigali separated by less than two hours on certain days, on a route that is known to be thin on passengers.

But as Air Uganda and RwandAir face off, the commencement of services between Entebbe and Kigali by gulf carrier Qatar airways and Turkish airlines poses another threat of competition for passengers.

Qatar starts daily flights to Kigali via Entebbe in early March followed a month later by Turkish Airlines as the two majors seek to stimulate traffic to their respective hubs: one on the southern edge of Central Europe and the other in the Middle East.  Particularly significant for  Air Uganda and Rwandair, is the fact that just like Ethiopian Air, which has introduced a second daily service on the Addis-Entebbe-Kigali route, Qatar has secured full fifth freedom rights,  which means it can cannibalise local traffic between the two points.

This means that Qatar Airlines can land, pick and drop passengers between the Entebbe-Kigali route although its timings and fares may not be that attractive to majority of regular travellers. In most parts of the continent, Qatar Airlines can only drop and pick up other passengers from one airport before it flies back to its hub in the Middle East, which is known as third freedom rights.

By extension Kenya Airways, KLM and Brussels Airlines are also put on notice as they stand to lose some of the Middle and Far East bound traffic that has been going through their respective hubs.

The entry of Qatar provides an alternative to the Middle East and Far East bound passengers from Kigali while Turkish Air offers an alternative transit hub for European and North American bound traffic out of Kigali.

Qatar’s flights to Kigali are part of an expansion drive in the region that will see it launch services to Mombasa and Zanzibar later this year.

“We take bold decisions to serve certain markets because we believe it makes strong business sense,” Qatar Airways chief executive officer Akbar Al Baker, said  in reference to the developments, while Temel Kotil, his counterpart at Turkish Air, said that Rwanda would soon be an important and flourishing continental hub of opportunities.

“We want to establish ourselves in Africa and have already dedicated 10 modern aircrafts for this,” Mr Kotil said, after meeting Rwanda’s President Paul Kagame last month. Turkish Airlines already operates in Kenya, Uganda and Tanzania.

But local airlines are not taking the challenge lying down. For instance Rwandair which is trading its pair of 50-seater CRJ200’s for bigger capacity regional jets that arrive in June, is understood to have launched the extra service to Entebbe to improve connectivity with its departures to South, Central and West Africa as well as the Middle East as part of wider efforts to turn Kigali into an alternative hub.

Air Uganda  which resumed services to Mombasa and Zanzibar in mid-December will this week introduce a third flight, offering both business and leisure travellers a direct link to Mombasa with better turn round times.

The carrier will also have two flights per day on the Entebbe-Juba route allowing same day returns for business travellers.

Rwanda and Uganda are the focus of new competition because network planners at major carriers see the two countries as underserved with plenty of room for growth.

According to industry observers, the new developments throw some hard choices at Air Uganda, which, with its conservative growth strategy must now choose to rise to the challenge and spread its wings beyond the region or risk getting consigned to a small fringe operator whose turf will increasingly get eroded by a rapidly liberalising industry.

Meanwhile Kenya Airways, which draws close to half of its $1 billion revenue from its African network is keeping a close watch on the developments and is understood to be looking at additional flights to points within the region while expanding its network once its new fleet arrives beginning 2013.

The Airline is evaluating new points in India and China to tap into the growing trade between Asia and Africa. KQ is also looking to raise about $400 million, possibly in the first half of 2012, through a rights issue to double its fleet of 31 aircrafts in five years’ time to protect its lucrative African market.

In Tanzania, Precision Air is gearing up for expansion having raised $7.5 million through its initial public offer in October 2011. However, this was less than the expected $17.5 million.