East African Carrier, RwandAir is taking advantage of the nation’s diplomatic hub as the airline formally commences direct flight from the nations capital, Abuja to the Kigali, Rwanda.
In her opening remarks during a cocktail organised by the airline to celebrate the commencement of Abuja-Kigali route in Abuja, the RwandAir country coordinator, Ibiyemi Odusi, said the airline decided to open Abuja route because of the need to bring its services close to the political capital of the country.
She also noted that apart from being a political capital, Abuja also offered a number of business opportunities with a lot of potentials.
She said: “There is a lot of potential for air transport market in Abuja and for us in RwandAir, Nigeria is actually one of our cash cow and that is we can go the extra mile to invest and get good returns.”
The country coordinator added that the four times weekly Abuja-Kigali service was positioned to give Nigerians more travel options from the nation’s political capital to destinations flown by RwandAir, saying the flight would offer passengers from Nigeria the opportunity to connect to its global route network.
According to her, “Since 2012 when RwandAir started operations in Nigeria, it has continued to consolidate from its hub in Kigali to Dubai, Johannesburg, Nairobi, Entebbe, Dar es Salaam, Accra, London, Brussels and other routes on its network.
“The Abuja-Kigali four weekly flights will open new vistas for passengers who want to connect to many parts of the world by leveraging the carrier’s on-time performance, safety record, international certification, excellent in-flight entertainment, customer service, competitive fares and other comparative advantages.”
In his remarks, the deputy chief executive officer, operations, RwandAir, Silver Munyaneza, stated that the decision to increase destinations in Nigeria was borne out of the desire to link the two countries political capitals.
He also commended the Nigerian government for its commitment to the open sky initiative, otherwise known as Yamoussoukro Decision, aimed at promoting single air transport market in the continent.
According to him, the operations on the route had so far been encouraging because the load factor is currently around 60 per cent.
“RwandAir will be operating four times weekly flight to and from Abuja – Sunday, Monday, Wednesday and Friday unlike Lagos where it operates daily flights,” he added.
Earlier, the Rwandan High Commissioner to Nigeria, Mr Stanislas Kamanzi, said the RwandAir’s Abuja-Kigali route would boost trade relations between Nigeria and Rwanda.
He said the new route was a product of the long-standing friendship between Nigeria and Rwanda, adding that the Abuja-Kigali route would deepen trade relationship between the two countries.
According to him, Rwanda is an emerging economy and land of opportunities in the continent.
“No doubt, the new route would enhance integration in the continent. We look forward to growing trade and diplomatic relations between Nigeria and Rwanda as well between East and West Africa. That is what we need for our people to tap the wealth of our continent,’’ he added.
