Rwanda plans to expand its national carrier RwandAir

Rwanda has planned to expand its national carrier RwandAir across the continent and challenge the dominance of the other regional airlines, Kenya Airways and Ethiopian Airlines, according to a news report by The Citizen.

The airline has recorded growth reaching 29 destinations across the globe at the end of the last year, but the icing on the cake for Rwanda has been the Qatar government's recent deal with Rwanda's aviation sector.

Signing as many as 101 Bilateral Aviation Safety Agreements (BASA), Rwanda has laid the foundation on which the airline can plan to open up more routes without many bureaucratic complications.

"The BASA agreements give us flexibility and ease the process of starting new routes. If the decision is made to look at opening a new route, we do the business case and decide whether it makes commercial sense to start that route," said RwandAir CEO, Yvonne Makolo.

Makolo also said that this is the right time to get all these agreements in place and then make a decision when the authorities are ready to open up more routes.

Competition among airlines in Africa is becoming tighter day by day as some of the African airlines such as Ugandan and Tanzanian airlines are flying the same routes.