Kigali’s cargo hub a regional boost

Kigali International Airport is setting itself up as a major cargo hub to improve freight shipments throughout Africa.

A new cargo facility in the Rwandan capital will become a transit centre for loads entering Africa from overseas – particularly China – that will then be moved around the continent.

“Rwanda’s geographic position at the heart of Africa has put us in a unique position to reach every corner of the continent and strengthen our relationship with countries both within Africa and around the world,” RwandAir’s CEO, Yvonne Manzi Makolo said.

She was speaking following the arrival of the first Qatar Airways Boeing 777F freighter at the new cargo centre.

“As a landlocked nation, we recognise the importance of air freight in not only Rwanda’s economic route, but also across the continent,” she added. “Africa is home to a hugely-diverse economy, with businesses and entrepreneurs looking for better connections to create new markets and expand inward investment.”

This added emphasis on cargo operations was underlined last November, when RwandAir took delivery of its first dedicated freighter, a Boeing 737-800SF.

RwandAir is operating the aircraft to several destinations in Africa and the Middle East, including Johannesburg, Nairobi, and the UAE.

The cargo hub development marks the latest step in RwandAir’s increasing co-operation with Qatar Airways.

The cargo warehouse is almost 4,900m² in size, with an approximate annual handling capacity of 49,000 tonnes. The facility has 16 dedicated cool positions, segregated for fresh food and pharmaceuticals.

“During close collaboration between Qatar Airways and RwandAir, QAS Cargo provided consultancy support to RwandAir Cargo to improve its cargo handling performance at the existing facility for the Kigali cargo hub launch,” explained Elisabeth Oudkerk, Qatar Airways’ SVP cargo sales and network planning.  

“Expert teams from QAS Cargo visited the cargo handling facilities in November 2022 and provided RwandAir management with a detailed action plan for operational improvements.

“This was followed by an intensive four-week onsite engagement by a team of five QAS Cargo subject matter expert staff. This team was instrumental in ensuring ground-level implementation of the suggested improvements in RwandAir Cargo’s handling performance.”

Qatar Airways is operating a twice-weekly Doha-Kigali cargo service with a Boeing 777 freighter and “Since March, we have launched an inland African cargo service connecting the cities of Kigali and Lagos, Nigeria, with two flights per week,” said Oudkerk.

“We also launched a weekly cargo service from Doha to Kigali via Istanbul, operated by an Airbus A310 and in June, we added one weekly flight to Kano, Nigeria, as a part of the intra-Africa service from Kigali. In July, the Kigali hub network continued its expansion with an addition of two weekly flights to Johannesburg on an A310. We expect more cargo services to be added out of Kigali in the upcoming months.”                                                                                       

As of September, a leased A310 has been deployed at Kigali; this will operate several services connecting Kigali with Johannesburg (twice weekly), Lagos (weekly), a triangular Kigali-Lagos-Kano-Kigali route (weekly) and a Kigali-Nairobi-Doha service (weekly).

The A310 is operated by Qatar Airways Cargo and Rwandair, wet-leased from Turkish freight operator ULS Airlines Cargo.

“Africa is one of the world’s fastest-growing economies, yet for it to develop to its full potential requires investment in logistics infrastructures,” said Guillaume Halleux, chief officer, cargo at Qatar Airways.  “It was therefore a logical step that Qatar Airways Cargo supports RwandAir in its cargo ambitions. Our customers will benefit from both a reliable intra-African network through our Kigali hub, as well as enhanced service levels and cost synergies.”

The launch of Qatar Airways Cargo’s first cargo hub outside Qatar aims to create a foundation on which to expand an African air cargo network to meet the 3%-5% annual economic growth forecast for the continent over the next decade.