The Rwandan national airline, RwandAir, has put pen to paper with General Electric Capital Aviation Services (GECAS) for the long-term lease of two B737-500s, which are due for delivery in May and July of this year to join the growing RwandAir fleet.
Acting CEO and chairman of the board Mr. John Mirenge signed on behalf of the airline, while Ryan Barret, vice president of GECAS signed the lease documents on behalf of the lessor. The two aircraft are expected to be deployed on the Kigali to Johannesburg route, as well as on the new Kigali to Kinshasa route, where traffic is thought to be growing strongly once flights to Congo’s capital commence in a few weeks’ time.
For some time there was talk about RwandAir acquiring the newer B737-800 type, but this may ultimately have been too expensive at this stage, as these aircraft are relatively new and not easy to find “off the shelf.” There is, however, the option to upgrade the aircraft at a later stage to the newer N737NG models, once utilization of the two additional jets has been raised to such levels as to move in that direction.
