Following the successful signing of a Bilateral Air Service Agreement with Ghana, Rwanda on Wednesday signed an agreement with Angola, granting both national airlines fifth freedom right to fly at each other’s airports without limitations.
According to xinhuanet.com, Angola’s TAAG Airlines will be free to pick passengers from Rwanda to any destination while RwandAir can as well freely fly to Angola and pick passengers to any destination, Rwanda’s state minister for transport Jean de Dieu Uwihanganye said after signing the agreement.
He projected that with the agreement, RwandAir could consider using the Angola route to fly to South American destinations and Portugal.
The airspace agreement would boost relations between the two countries in various aspects, said Augusto da Silva Tomas, Angola’s minister of transport.
Rwanda also signed an agreement of the fifth freedom right with Togo on Tuesday.
The agreements were signed on the sidelines of a four-day aviation safety management symposium that opened in Kigali on Tuesday.
RwandAir has recently launched flights to South Africa’s Cape Town and Nigeria’s Abuja, increasing its destinations to 26.
According to atqnews.com the country also signed a BASA with Ghana on Monday liberalizing commercial flights between the two countries.
The agreement was signed between Rwanda’s Minister of State in charge of Transport, Eng. Jean De Dieu Uwihanganye and the Minister for Aviation of Ghana, Cecilia Abena Dapaah, at the Ministry of Infrastructure in Kigali.
Uwihanganye explained that the signing marks the first and very important step towards the fulfillment of constitutional formalities, so that once the latter are complied with by their two countries, the agreement comes into force.
He said the move will not only boost ties between the two countries but also provide more reliable and predictable air services, between and beyond.
With a fleet of 12 aircraft including two wide-body Airbus A330 acquired last year, the airline fly to destinations across East, Central, West and Southern Africa, the Middle East, Europe and Asia.
