RwandAir secures additional fifth freedom flights

RWANDAIR is set to expand
its network to Abuja on
April 15 and Cape Town on
May 16 after being granted
fifth freedom rights by both
Nigerian and Zimbabwean
authorities. The two routes
will increase the carrier’s
network to 26 destinations.
The Abuja flights will be
part of the existing Accra
service and will operate
Kigali-Abuja-Accra, while
the Cape Town flights will
go via Harare and operate
Kigali-Harare-Cape Town.
RwandAir was granted
fifth freedom rights by the
Nigerian government in
December to fly between
Abuja and Yaoundé without
any limitations. This month,
it was granted the same
rights by the Zimbabwean
government to fly between
Harare and Cape Town.
Rwanda also recently
signed a bilateral air
service agreement with
Cape Verde, opening
more potential market
opportunities for the
national carrier and the
country’s private sector.
Other African carriers
that have been granted
fifth freedom rights
include Kenya Airways
on its Nairobi-LusakaLilongwe
route and, more
recently, Air Namibia on
its Windhoek-Lagos-Accra
route.
While fifth freedom
rights in Africa are on the
rise, there has been no
progress with regard to a
Single African Sky since the
launch of the Single African
Air Transport Market, the
African Union’s first AU
Agenda 2063 Flagship
project, which took
place on January 28
in Addis Ababa. “The
commitment is there, but
the implementation is the
critical aspect,” says June
Crawford, ceo of Barsa.
Thus far, 23 out of 55
African countries have
subscribed to the highly
anticipated Single African
Air Transport Market. They
are Benin, Botswana,
Burkina Faso, Cape Verde,
Congo, Côte d'Ivoire,
Egypt, Ethiopia, Gabon,
Ghana, Guinea, Kenya,
Liberia, Mali, Mozambique,
Niger, Nigeria, Rwanda,
Sierra Leone, South Africa,
Swaziland, Togo and
Zimbabwe.
June explains that fifth
freedom rights always make
a route more profitable
as the demand is spread
across two sectors.