Kigali, 1^st December 2016, The National carrier celebrates another important milestone in the delivery of its second brand new Airbus A330-300that has been named “Umurage” meaning heritage.

The new craft- “Umurage” is a Wi-Fi enabled state of the art equipment, configured in a triple class layout but larger than “Ubumwe” the A330-200 that arrived two months ago. The aircraft is powered by Rolls Royce Trent 772B engines.

According to John MIRENGE, the RwandAir’s Chief Executive Officer ”it has the capacity of carrying 274 passengers and 132.20 cubic meters cargo, we are proudly re-affirming our plans for long haul operations connecting Rwanda , the region and the continent to the rest of the World”.

With the new airplane, RwandAir’s fleet has now reached 11 aircrafts. John MIRENGE said “We are now set to compete globally” adding that the airline has been growing at an average of 20 per cent in the last six years and is currently positioning itself as the ‘most efficient and reliable’ airline in the region.

Hon. James MUSONI, the Minister of Infrastructure who officiated the milestone, thanked the visionary leadership of our Country and particularly His Excellency the President, Paul KAGAME for championing this noble development and identifying Aviation as one of the economic pillars of the Nation.

He appreciated RwandAir`s achievements in developing country. “RwandAir has rapidly grown its fleet from two small jets serving regional routes only, to medium haul aircrafts that have tremendously been improving intra-African cities’ connectivity to the wide-body modern aircrafts soon offering alternative links to Europe, Asia and the USA”, he said.

On behalf of the Government of Rwanda, the Minister of Infrastructure promised the continued support to grow the aviation sector, he said “the Government of Rwanda will continue to support the aviation sector and increase bilateral agreements to link Rwanda to rest of the World”.

Currently, RwandAir flies to 19 destinations: Cotonou in Benin, Abidjan in Ivory Coast, Nairobi, Entebbe, Mombasa, Bujumbura, Lusaka, Juba, Douala, Dar es Salaam, Kilimanjaro, Johannesburg, Dubai, Lagos, Libreville and Brazzaville. It is set to open routes to Harare in Zimbabwe and Mumbai, India soon.

By 2018, RwandAir projects to ferry more than three million passengers annually, from 500,000 travellers presently.