RwandAir conducted its first nonstop flight between Kigali Airport and London Heathrow last week. The flag carrier of Rwanda’s Airbus A330 landed in London at 07:17 after a flight duration of eight hours and 40 minutes.
The airline is no stranger to European operations. Just this summer, it celebrated five years of serving Brussels. Following this milestone, the carrier took its offering to the next level by shifting its London route from having a stopover in Brussels to flying straight to the capital of the United Kingdom.
Thus, the nonstop route will operate four times a week. WB711 leaves London at 20:30 every Monday, Wednesday, Friday, and Sunday. The return flight, WB710, leaves at 23:35 every Tuesday, Thursday, Saturday, and Sunday.
RwandAir UK Country Manager Simon Rickman shared the following in a company statement:
“We are excited our first non-stop flight has landed at London Heathrow today. The UK is an incredibly important market for RwandAir as we know these new non-stop services will prove very popular with our customers, who will highly value our shorter journey times and increased connections to onward destinations across Africa.”
Heathrow Chief Commercial Officer Ross Baker added:
“We are delighted to see RwandAir expand their operations by launching a new non-stop route linking London and Kigali through Heathrow, the UK’s hub airport. It is fantastic that travel demand is increasing again, boosting connectivity for passengers and cargo.”
Serving around 30 destinations across 22 nations throughout four continents, RwandAir is continuing to expand its presence across the aviation spectrum. In Europe, the operator heads to the likes of Croatia, the Czech Republic, Denmark, France, Germany, Greece, Hungary, Italy, Latvia, Lithuania, Norway, Portugal, Russia, Slovenia, Spain, Sweden, Switzerland, and the UK. Adding more nonstop links will prove to be valuable in this next chapter of post-downturn international recovery.
RwandAir first launched flights to London five years ago, initially landing in Gatwick. However, the carrier switched its site to London to take advantage of the better connecting opportunities as the busy European hub.
Notably, it’s far easier to connect at Heathrow than at Gatwick, with the latter requiring more manual processes and holding minimal transit facilities compared to the former. Registration 9XR-WN, an A330-200, kicked off the service, and RwandAir will be looking forward to continuing deploying the model to connect passengers to London and, in turn, across the globe on other services.
The two A330s in Rwandair’s fleet are just six years old. The other unit is an A330-300 in the form of 9XR-WP.
The activity goes both ways. Rwanda is increasingly becoming a tourism hotspot, as several promotional activities were in place before the rise of the pandemic. With strict travel restrictions lifted, RwandAir is keen to uphold its role in carrying tourists to its home country to visit its natural glory and enjoy the local culture. The airline also offers a robust connecting network across the African continent with its fleet mix of widebodies, narrowbodies, and turboprops.
Amid this progress, it won’t be a surprise to hear of further direct links after 2023 is fully underway, especially since the company is exploring a Oneworld membership.
