RwandAir connects with Cape Town
Pictured at the launch of RwandAir’s first flight to Cape Town are: Olivia Ntambara, Customer Relations Manager, RwandAir; Gavin Simpson, CEO, Holiday Aviation; Thembela Dladla, Country Manager South Africa, RwandAir; Vincent Karega, Rwandan Ambassador to South Africa; and Sonia Kamikazi, Director of Quality Assurance, RwandAir.
- RwandAir introduced Cape Town (CPT) to its network on 16 May, commencing a four times weekly service to the South African city from Kigali (KIG), with the city pair operating via the carrier’s existing Harare service which is flown with its CRJ 900 fleet. According to various media reports, the route was made possible as a result of the Zimbabwean Government granting fifth freedom rights to the Rwandan flag carrier. With the freedom to offer this service to passengers, it now means that the airline serves two destinations in South Africa, with it already flying to Johannesburg. As a result of the airline being granted fifth freedom rights between Zimbabwe and South Africa, it will be able to capture some of the demand between Harare and Cape Town. Although no other airline presently flies between the South African and Zimbabwe cities, some 34,600 passengers travelled indirectly between the two destinations last year according to OAG Traffic Analyser data. In 2017 the leading connecting hub was Johannesburg, with South Africa’s leading airport capturing over 99% of the connecting market between Cape Town and Harare. As a result of this launch, the carrier now serves 26 destinations across Africa, the Middle East, India and Europe, with its only non-African destinations at present being Brussels, Dubai, London Gatwick and Mumbai.
I’m very interested to know where the other less than 1% connected through…this 99% figure via JNB is something we rarely see on anna.aero…only possible ones I can think is maybe WDH and VFA?
Good on CPT for not doing water arch!