Connecting Africa and Dubai
RwandAir is the only carrier connecting Kenya’s coastal city Mombasa to Dubai. In 2016 they will affirm the airlines’ commitment to become an African airline of choice with the scheduled network and fleet expansion.
Our current routing in the Emirates is Dubai where we operate daily flights to Kigali, Rwanda (four weekly non-stop flights to Kigali and three via Mombasa, Kenya). Our average load factor is 70 per cent, operated by Boeing 737-800 NG, the first Boeing Sky Interior in Africa.
UAE is an important market for RwandAir due to its dynamism as a hub for global commerce coupled with its strategic location in relation to Africa. UAE was key to help unlock Rwanda’s trade linkages and opportunities. Subsequently, our Dubai traffic consists mostly of African traders conducting business in Dubai.
Some of the notable travel trends emerging from the market consists of a rise of digital innovation and social media that has seen players in these industries seek to engage with customers directly. As a result of this, travellers are more empowered and are gaining control over the entire travel experience. Customers are looking for added value and RwandAir is at the forefront of this with initiatives such as free visas for transit passengers in Kigali. Leisure seems to be growing and trending and RwandAir seeks to play a big role here by encouraging outbound leisure travel to its key destinations such as Rwanda (Kigali), Kenya (Mombasa and Nairobi), South Africa (Johannesburg) just to name a few in the network.
UAE national carriers do pose a great deal of competition but thanks to our loyal customer base, we have seen a sustained growth over the years and that informs our growth plans. We are looking to grow our Dubai capacity in the next coming months.
The travel agents (or the travel trade) account for well over 70 per cent of our revenues hence it is impera- tive for us to strategically manage the agency relationships. We believe that this strategic approach goes a long way to build loyalty, credible and trusted relationships and better results that are sustainable on a long term basis. For that, we have in place performance based benefits for the various agents.
We conduct travel agents Fam trips for product knowledge, product presentations, best practice sessions among other initiatives to get close to this key customer – the travel agent!
We are conducting travel trade and media Fam trips to create awareness of our route network and to expose in particular Rwanda’s MICE (Meetings, Incentives, Conferences & Events) potential and Africa’s in general. We recently sponsored a media Fam trip for top UAE Media to Mombasa to showcase the only direct flight service from Dubai (Dubai/Mombasa/Dubai) from the February 10-13, 2016. This was hosted at Voyager Beach Resort, Mombasa, a vibrant, ship-themed resort famous for hosting some of Africa’s finest family entertainments and animation programs, including unique themed journeys across the seven seas, culinary extravaganzas, and special music, fashion, comedy and acrobatic shows.
Our next trips will see travel operators and the media head to Kigali, Rwanda, the hub and home to RwandAir. This is a country where green, mountainous landscape has earned it the nickname ‘Land of a Thousand Hills.’ Its renowned Volcanoes National Park is home to mountain gorillas and golden monkeys.
We conduct Fam trips for the travel trade to create awareness of our route network and to expose in particular Rwanda’s MICE potential and Africa’s in general