Suspension of flights was a commercial decision: Kagame

RWANDA President Paul Kagame has said the decision to suspend flights to the southern African region was a result of dwindling passenger numbers on its national carrier, RwandAir, due to travel bans imposed by some Western countries in the wake of the discovery of the new Covid-19 variant — Omicron.

The majority of passengers on RwandAir from southern Africa are usually in transit to other destinations across the world which were suddenly closed after the new variant was discovered by South African scientists.

“The simple reason was, for example, the flights that come from southern Africa, most of the passengers who come to Kigali don’t terminate their journey in Rwanda. The majority are going through to other destinations,” President Kagame said while officiating at the opening of the 33rd plenary session of the African Civil Aviation Commission meeting held in Kigali.

“So there was going to be an economic backlash if we just went to southern Africa without bringing passengers back because passengers come through here to other destinations so they wouldn’t be coming. We might be able to carry passengers to southern Africa originating from here but on the way back the flights will almost be empty every time so it wouldn’t make economic sense.”

President Kagame said if RwandAir had continued its flights with almost empty seats from southern Africa, it would result in the airline incurring financial losses.

“So one of the measures we took was to say well, let’s wait and see what happens across the world, let’s stop flying to southern Africa,” he said.

The 33rd plenary session of the African Civil Aviation Commission meeting was attended by delegates from the 55 African Union member states.

The meeting kicked off on Wednesday and ended on Friday.

President Kagame said the Covid-19 had negatively affected the aviation sector globally and Africa was not an exception, adding that the pandemic is continuing to affect the African continent.

He said the new variant has brought confusion as it was disrupting air travel across the world.