Construction has started on a $700- million airport project in eastern Rwanda, which the country’s government says will be a major boost to efforts to integrate the East African Community and boost intra-Africa trade.
“Bugesera International Airport is [also] an important part of Rwanda’s strategy for socioeconomic transformation [and] is key to our ambitions to grow trade and the tourism, finance and information and communication technology sectors,” President Paul Kagame said at the ground-breaking ceremony last month.
He added that, while Kigali International Airport continues to improve in terms of infrastructure, services and efficiency, the new airport will be better suited to the country’s national development vision.
It will be built in four phases, and Phase 1 – with capacity to handle one-million passengers and 150-million tonnes of cargo a year – is expected to cost $400-million and to be completed in 2019. Phase 2 will entail the construction of a second runway.
The airport is also designed to provide hotels and leisure and conference facilities. It is further hoped that a free trade zone will be created in the vicinity of the airport to spur economic development.
Portuguese company Monta-Engil has been awarded the engineering, procurement and construction contract for the project.
According to Kagame, the new airport will boost national carrier RwandAir’s push to establish Rwanda as an alternative East African aviation hub to current powerhouses Kenya and Ethiopia.
RwandAir currently flies to 22 destinations across the globe and is investing to expand its fleet to from 11 to 16 aircraft over the next five years.
The fleet comprises three Boeing 737800NGs, two Boeing 737700NGs, two CRJ900NGs and two Bombardier Q-400NGs – all in dual-class configuration – and two new triple-class Airbus A330s.
Over the next five years, the airline plans to increase the number of pas- sengers it transports from 750 000 to over 1.5-million.