A new direct flight linking Rwandan capital Kigali with Goma, the capital city of North Kivu in Eastern Dr Congo and the mining city of Lubumbashi (Southeastern), will be inaugurated on 29 September by Rwanda flag carrier RwandAir, the airline said in a statement obtained Tuesday.
The new direct flight will be two times a week with the launching scheduled on September 29 (Goma) and October 15 (Lubumbashi) with an Airbus A330-200 aircraft, which has a capacity of 227 seats.
“We’re delighted to add Lubumbashi and Goma to our network from 29th September & 15th October 2021 respectively,” the airline said on Twitter.
Rwandair CEO, Yvonne Makolo said the carrier’s new bi-weekly routes to Lubumbashi and Goma will provide more choices and flexibility to customers traveling to the Democratic Republic of Congo.
“We believe that these new routes will be extremely popular with RwandAir customers and that they will strengthen diplomatic and commercial ties between DRC and Rwanda,” Makolo said.
RwandAir’s first destination in the DRC was in Kinshasa in April 2019 and with the two new routes the airline said it is tripling the capacity available to DR Congo.
Despite the Covid19 impact on the aviation sector, the airline also stated that it plans to expand its reach not only across sub-Saharan Africa, but also to further destinations on the continent.
Rwandair currently connects to more than 25 destinations in Africa, Europe, Middle East and Asia and has started resuming flights to most countries following a temporary closure due to Covid-19.
CU/APA