RwandAir expects Qatar Airways to finalise its purchase of a major stake in the central African country’s carrier as early as next month, as the Doha-based airline attempts to capitalise on one of the world’s fastest-growing markets.
The partnership with Qatar Airways would boost Rwanda’s aviation sector and allow its state-owned carrier to expand its operations and fleet said its chief executive Yvonne Makolo, as US plane-maker Boeing projects that intra-African passenger traffic will more than quadruple in the next two decades.
For the past five years, Qatar and Rwanda have been working on a deal — which has been delayed, partly, by the Covid-19 pandemic and by Qatar hosting the Fifa World Cup — to grant the Gulf nation’s airline, one of the world’s largest, a 49 per cent stake of Rwanda’s flag carrier airline for an undisclosed sum.
“It’s been going on for a while, we have been discussing it for almost five years. So, now, we’re really at the tail-end of it,” Makolo told the Financial Times. Senior executives close to the negotiations expect the “execution” of the agreement to happen as early as July.
RwandAir already has access to Qatar Airways’ network thanks to a code-share agreement that also gives the Doha-based airline to access regional capitals such as Burundi’s Bujumbura.
“We access over 70 points on their network, and they access a number of points, especially in central Africa, where they don’t have a presence”, Makolo said, adding that the deal would help RwandAir expand its fleet and routes and upskill its staff. RwandAir currently owned only three widebody aircraft used for its Brussels, London and Paris flights, she said.
RwandAir was voted Africa’s 6th-best carrier by Skytrax last year, behind bigger ones such as Ethiopian Airlines, the continent’s largest, that flies to more than 130 destinations, and the embattled South African Airways, which entered into bankruptcy proceedings in 2020 after decades of government bailouts.
Ethiopian Airlines has succeeded partly by partnering with other airlines through joint ventures and acquiring stakes as, unlike in other regions that have deregulated aviation, airlines operating in the continent often have to sign bilateral agreements to fly between two countries.
Africa only accounts for about 2 per cent of global air traffic, according to Iata, despite being home to about 18 per cent of the world’s population.
Makolo said a deal would mean “we’ll be able to scale up much faster”.
A parallel agreement in which Qatar Airways took a 60 per cent stake in Rwanda’s new $1.3bn Bugesera international airport in Kigali — which Makolo said would be operational in 2027 and have an initial capacity for 8mn passengers — would turn the country’s capital into “a major transit hub” in Africa.
Qatar Airways declined to comment. Last month its new chief executive Badr Mohammed Al Meer said his company was “at the final stage” of investing in an “airline in the southern part of Africa” as he looks to expand the fleets of its partner airlines to improve regional connectivity.
The gas-rich Gulf state’s national carrier has invested in other aviation groups worldwide to draw traffic to Doha. Holdings include a 25 per cent stake in International Airlines Group, which owns European airlines including British Airways, and just under 10 per cent of Hong Kong-based Cathay Pacific.
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