RwandAir, the national carrier of the Republic of Rwanda has announced commencement of flights to Addis Ababa, the capital city of Ethiopia, starting from April 2019. RwandAir will operate five weekly direct flights from Kigali to Addis Ababa with a CRJ-900NG aircraft.
Addis Ababa is not only the administrative, financial and commercial center of the country but it also hosts the Headquarters of the African Union, the United Nations Economic Commission for Africa and many other regional offices for a number of international organizations.
With flights to Addis Ababa, RwandAir will be offering seamless connections through its hub in Kigali between Addis Ababa and other African cities in its network.
The addition of Addis Ababa is key to RwandAir’s growth in Africa and it’s also a bridge for strengthening the bilateral relationships and improving trade and tourism between the two countries.
“As an expanding young airline, it is imperative for us to fly to Addis Ababa Bole International airport as it is one of the important hubs in Africa” said Yvonne Manzi Makolo, the CEO of RwandAir. “By starting direct flights to Addis Ababa we expect to offer better connections to East, West and Southern Africa” she added.
With a fleet of twelve aircraft including two wide-body Airbus A330, the airline currently reaches out to twenty-six (26) destinations across East, Central, West and Southern Africa, the Middle East, Europe and Asia. The addition of Addis Ababa to its network will make RwandAir reach out to 27 destinations.
Last year, RwandAir started flights from Kigali to Mumbai, Harare, London (Gatwick) and Brussels as well as Dakar from its second hub in Cotonou. RwandAir also introduced flights to Abidjan, Libreville and Brazzaville from its Cotonou hub. In April 2018, RwandAir started flights to Abuja in Nigeria and Cape Town was added to the network in May of the same year. Next year, Guangzhou, Tel Aviv, Bamako and Conakry will also be added to its expanding network.
