Brussels Airlines, the flag carrier and largest airline of Belgium, announced Monday that it will finally resume commercial flights to different destinations including Kigali.
The Lufthansa Group carrier grounded its entire fleet on March 24, and had halted all commercial passenger operations for 12 weeks now due to the Coronavirus pandemic.
But as airlines globally prepare to reopen commercial aviation services, Brussels will now resume flights to several destinations, including Kigali which is expected to reopen in July.
What’s not clear is whether Rwanda will have opened its airspace for aviation services, as the country the government had placed ban on commercial flights as one of the measures to contain the virus.
On its long haul network, the airline will serve 13 out of its 17 African destinations.
From June 22, the airline will restore services to Dakar, Las Palmas, Tenerife, Kinshasa, and Banjul. Monrovia, Abidjan, Accra, Lome, Douala, Cotonou, Entebbe, and Yaounde will restart from July.
In August, Bujumbura route will be restored.
The company will gradually add destinations to its flight network to reach 59 destinations in 33 countries in Europe, Africa and the US by August.
The offer will gradually be built up from June onwards to reach 240 weekly flights by August, which represents 30 percent of the originally planned summer schedule in Europe and 40 percent of the long haul summer programme.
In Europe, a total of 45 destinations will be served in 20 countries, including Spain, Portugal, Greece, Italy, France and Denmark. On its long haul network, New York JFK will join the schedule again.
One new destination that was planned to be inaugurated in March, will join the network during the course of next year Montreal in Canada.
Story by Julius Bizimungu- www.newtimes.co.rw
