Rwanda and the Philippines on Monday signed two milestone agreements on civil aviation, marking an important step for Rwanda’s national carrier RwandAir to open direct flights to Manilla.
Weekly Commercial flights will soon be opened between the two countries under this agreement, the statement obtained by APA in Kigali said.
It said that RwandAir will be operating flights to what is now the fourth third Asian destination after Dubai (UAE) and Mumbai (India) and Guangzhou (China).
The existing flights connecting Rwandan capital city Kigali are currently making stopovers in India’s commercial capital of Mumbai before making their way to Guangzhou Baiyun International Airport in Guangdong Province.
With a stopover in Mumbai, Rwandair seeks to be the main link between its 27 destinations, 23 of them on the African continent, with India and China and Philippines –two countries which have become major destinations for business people.
With Kigali as its hub, RwandAir currently flies to destinations in West, East and Southern Africa, the Middle East, Mumbai (India) and Europe.
The airline, which has 12 planes, plans to increase its fleet to about 20 in the next two years.
The airline has grown from a virtual carrier, leasing its entire fleet, to operating its own, which now consists of two B737-700s, two B737-800s, two CRJ-900s, two Bombardier Q-400s, two A330-200 and two A330-300.
CU/abj/as/APA