Qatar-Rwanda airline tie-up to be finalised shortly

“It is going to happen very soon,” Jules Ndenga, CEO of ATL told African Aerospace on the sidelines of the African Airlines Association (AFRAA) 13th Aviation Stakeholders Convention held in Kigali from 11-13 May.

ATL was created in 2015 by the Rwandan Government as the holding company for the country’s air transport businesses and includes RwandAir, Rwanda Airports Company and private aviation operator Akagera Aviation.

The possibility of Qatar Airways taking a stake in RwandAir first emerged in February 2020, with Qatar attracted by the opportunity to help build a hub in the heart of Africa in a politically stable country with strong regional growth potential.

However, it has taken several years for the deal to reach this final stage. “We had some delays, mainly in the recent past, due to the shift from Qatar Airways to the Qatar Investment Authority (QIA),” explained Ndenga.

Initially, the Doha-based carrier was leading the investment into RwandAir, but it has been transferred to QIA, the sovereign wealth fund of Qatar. This meant a review of the investment agreement developed with Qatar Airways. “That exercise is complete,” said Ndenga, with the final legal, governmental and regulatory hurdles soon to be fully cleared.

The Qatari stake in RwandAir is seen as a key pillar in Kigali’s ambitions to develop its air transport eco-system to support the country’s economic and social development. The value of the investment has not been announced. QIA has also taken a 60% stake in development of the New Kigali International Airport creating a large regional hub scheduled to open in 2028.

With the benefits of the full investment agreement within sight, the two carriers have been working commercially since 2021 when they signed a codeshare spanning 65 routes across Africa and across the globe in addition to RwandAir beginning non-stop flights between Kigali and Doha.

“We are already working together, and we continue to grow our codeshare partnership which is at 80-plus destinations, and we co-operate on a few other areas,” said Yvonne Manzi Makolo, RwandAir CEO.

With African airlines facing a high-cost environment they find “scaling up a big challenge,” she told delegates at the AFRAA event. “What is great about the ongoing partnership with Qatar is it allows us to reset and to get things right.

“We are going through a whole transformation exercise as well to streamline RwandAir,” she explained. “This is looking at our business, all of our departments, asking whether we are right sized, whether we have the right people in the right jobs, looking at our network and our fleet,” said Makolo.

Collaborating on this transformation with a more experienced airline is key in enabling RwandAir to achieve its growth ambitions, she explained.

At present, RwandAir operates a fleet of three Airbus A330 widebodies, six Boeing 737NGs, two Bombardier CRJ900s and two De Havilland Dash 8-400s.

The fleet plan is regularly reviewed, but “from an ambition perspective we definitely want to double our fleet in the next five years,” said Makolo. The tie-up with Qatar Airways will help in this regard. “It is about leveraging their muscle in terms of negotiating and sourcing suitable aircraft for us.”

The conclusion of Qatar’s equity stake in RwandAir will be Doha’s second investment in an African-based carrier. In August 2024, Qatar Airways announced it had acquired a 25% stake in South African carrier Airlink.

At the deal signing, Qatar Airways Group chief executive officer, Badr Mohammed Al-Meer, said: “Our investment in Airlink further demonstrates how integral we see Africa being to our business’ future.”