Tag Archives: RwandAir

Rwanda Renaissance, an organisation mandated to promote trade, tourism and investments into the country, has announced plans to take a MICE group on RwandAir’s first-ever direct and nonstop flight from Mumbai. The flight will depart Mumbai on April 5, at 0145 hours, getting into Kigali the same morning at 0515 hours. The group, under the banner ‘Rwanda Calling 2017’ will see over 30 persons travel to Kigali. While the majority will be attending a Religious Meeting at KIBEHO, there will also be investors and businesses looking at opportunities in the country . Ivan Mugisha, Country Manager, RwandAir, remarks, “We are indeed, delighted to fly this group to Kigali, on our first-ever direct and nonstop flight from Mumbai. RwandAir is committed to provide passengers from India a unique experience , while they fly the dream of Africa, not only to Kigali, but to the very many destinations on the African continent, within our vast and expanding network.” Clarence Fernandes, Chairman, Rwanda Renaissance, affirmed the fact that RwandAir will not only offer a superior product, but will also avoid the hassles of having to transit and change flights at other airports to reach Kigali , whether one is travelling on business or on leisure. “We welcome Rwanda’s national carrier and are confident passengers not only to Kigali but even beyond, will enjoy the airline’s world class service,” he adds.

RwandAir will add two new destinations to its portfolio in April this year, first Harare on the 01st of April with daily flights and then Mumbai on the 03rd of April with four flights a week. Mumbai, RwandAir’s first ever intercontinental destination, will see one of the airline’s new Airbus A330’s, configured with a Business, Premium Economy and Economy class layout deployed for the nonstop flights from Kigali. Harare will from April onwards be combined with Lusaka as flights to Johannesburg revert to non-stop services, also operated with Boeing B737NG aircraft.

RwandAir has appointed Bird Travels, the Airline Management Services arm of Bird Group as its new General Sales Agent for the Indian market. RwandAir is planning to commence operations to Mumbai, India in the last quarter of this year, and the appointment of Bird Travel as its GSA comes in line with that. “Bird Travel is happy to be associated with RwandAir as their exclusive GSA in India. RwandAir is one of the fastest growing airlines on the African continent and has aggressive plans to connect India and Africa through their hub in Kigali, Rwanda. We look forward to a great working association with RwandAir and are optimistic of making their online operations a success,” commented Praful Khosla, Executive Vice President, Bird Travel. John Mirenge, RwandAir’s Chief Executive Officer stated that, “ we have selected Bird Travel to position our brand, create awareness of our products and sell our services in this important new market.” The new GSA, Bird Travel will use its vast experience and will be the immediate liaison for the airline’s sales development in India, including ticketing and direct support services to the travel trade. RwandAir will be operating four weekly flights to Mumbai with its brand new A330-300, a state of the art triple class 274 wide-body seater equipped with full flat beds in business class and unmatched leg room in premium economy, with inflight entertainment and Wi-Fi as well as GSM connectivity across all three classes.

RwandAir, the national carrier for Rwanda, will start direct flights from Rwanda into Mumbai effective September 2016. Clarence Fernandes, India representative, Rwanda Development Board, which also promotes tourism, reveales, “RwandAir will be coming in with four weekly flights from Mumbai to Dar-e-salaam and Dar-e-salaam to Kigali on A-330 with first, business and economy class. They will initially come in with 244 seats and as the demand increases the airline will scale up to 274 seats. This will be the shortest route, connecting Mumbai and Kigali. Dar-e-Salaam has a large Indian population so it was most practical to do a stop-over here.”