shefgab

Africa for the Weekend? The Inaugural Rwandair Flight Gatwick-Kigali
(LGW-KGL-DAR-JRO-KGL-LGW)




Thanks for clicking! I haven’t done a trip report in a while, but I thought that Rwandair’s (WB) first foray into the European market was worth noting.

Some of my previous reports on FT:
Sun Air (BA) from Billund to Humberside
Hawaii Big Island for New Year. BA, AA, US in J & F
Ukraine, Kazakhstan & Azerbaijan. WizzAir, Air Astana, AZAL & QR A380 Biz & Chernobyl

I found myself last week with an unexpectedly free long weekend. My first stop as always was ba.com….as we all know, flying BA last weekend would have been a disaster, so it was very lucky that I found a £300 fare to Dar es Salaam (DAR) leaving on Friday night. What airline? Rwandair! I vaguely remember many months ago reading that WB were planning LGW flights, but their website provided no information other than vague aspirations quotes. As it happened, this would be the inaugural flight. Would there be a party at the gate? I better book to find out!

This route was just awarded Anna Aero“Route of the Week”.

I fiddled around with the flights, and ended up with 2 nights in Dar, then 1 in Kigali. I’d been to both before many years ago, so this was mostly a beach/pool/flight trip. The DAR-KGL flight operated back via Kilimanjaro (JRO) which was a nice addition to the flight log. There were a few time changes after I booked (I only booked 72 hour before departure!) I assume as they were still fine tuning the inaugural flight routes.

My flights ended up looking list this:

LGW-KGL WB 701 2150-0750 A333
KGL-DAR WB 442 1000-1300 CR9
*2 Nights in Dar*
DAR-JRO WB 441 1750-1900 DH8
JRO-KGL WB 442 1945-2025 DH8
*1 Night in Kigali*
KGL-LGW WB 700 1200-2000 A332

So, first things first, check in. OLCI did eventually spring into life just after 24 hours before departure. In LGW WB use the North terminal, which at this time on a Friday was fairly quiet, with just EK to DXB, and a few shorthuals from U2 and Thomson still to leave.

WB had 4 desks open, with some very clueless staff…..they were basically able to issue boarding passes and tag bags, and that was it. I asked about adding my FFQ number (don’t know how), and why my seat had changed from OLCI ("I don’t know"). Is it possible to pay to upgrade ("I don't know"), and is the gate over the bridge? ("I've never been to the North Terminal before"). Hmmm, clearly some training to do!





I was also handed this letter – nice to see WB making an effort


Airside wasn’t too busy. I had a quick check of the duty free, then thought I might as well head to the gate early.


FIDS


I managed to time by trip over the bridge to the far gates just as the plane was landing


Touchdown!


I noticed two fire engines either side of the taxiway so positioned myself next to two LGW staff for the inevitable water cannon salute. Pretty cool place to watch it from!









Water Cannon Video ("they're cleaning the plane"!)




I got to the gate about half an hour before stated on the invite from check in, but there were already a few other people in the holding pen. There were staff around offering drinks, plus the inauguration cake!






Cheers


Staff out on the tarmac


There was no ceremonial speeches, the cake was just cute without announcement, and people just went up to help themselves. A bit behind scheduled boarding started. With only 65 (ish) passengers, it wasn’t too hectic!

Premium Economy, the first proper Y+ cabin on an African Airline


And the very acceptable Y cabin.




Good legroom


Map


The IFE was fairly simple, but had a reasonable selection of films and TV




Annoyingly there was only 1 episode of everything, so you’d better not get too into your show!






Nearly an hour late, the first WB flight from Europe heads back to Africa


There was the ubiquitous choice of “chicken or beef” for dinner. I went with the beef which was pretty good.


The drinks trolley came around after the food came out, not a sequence I like. At least every trolley (serving drinks, clearing etc) had plenty of mini bottles of water, so you could also grab a water at least. The drinks selection was ok. No diet drinks, but full sized Cokes, red and white wine, and beer (if you’re lucky, it was only on the 1st and 3rd flight I did).


As the flight was so empty, I was able to move into an empty row of 4 for the quintessential economy flat bed experience. I slept fair well to be honest.

Morning clouds over the Congo






There was no hot element or choice with breakfast, but it was perfectly acceptable.


You can see why Rwanda is nicknamed the “Land of a Thousand Hills”.






It seemed most of the WB fleet was in KGL this morning – good connection oppourtunities to most destinations on the network.




Y+ again


Connections was fairly easy. LGW was unable to give any onward boarding passes, but the desk on arrival was fairly quick at handing them out. The departure area was pretty bland. One cafe, 2 small duty free stores, and a souvenir store. There was free wifi at least.







Around 90 minutes before departure our flight was called to go through the security point into the holding pen where there was literally nothing to do.


And our flight had some sort of delay too, as well as being the last in the morning hub to leave, so we had a longish connection in the end


Everyone was given a plastic boarding card when getting on the bus


Interesting to see full sized J seats on a CR-900




Decent legroom again. Lucky no one was in the aisle seat


Final pax boarding. It seemed a busy flight today





I was impressed to see a hot meal (with a choice!) handed out on this sector.


Slightly eccentric (plantain, courgette and sweet chili chicken) catering, but tasted ok.


Drinks


over Lake Victoria


Then a while later over the Indian Ocean


Approaching DAR








A colourful local prop


The terminal – it’s small and old, but a replacement is coming along “soon”


Continued soon!

uncertaintraveler

Thanks for the report and photos. It is nice to see a part of the world that doesn't seem to get a lot of press around here.

shefgab

Thanks uncertaintraveler! I know there's not much info out there on WB, so through the report would be handy. And the countries too are worth a visit! Shame I didn't have more time

shefgab

Off the plane and into a bus. I got a Visa on Arrival for $50. It took around 20 minutes to sort out, but my bag was waiting when I was done. I picked up some Tanzanian Shillings, and hopped into my waiting hotel taxi.


I picked the Mediteranneao Hotel for my stay, as it was cheap, had good reviews, and was on the beach. Overall I was fairly happy with it.




The seaside bar was a favourite of mine. Plenty of exotic local beers for not much money, with good wifi and a view!




At the National Musuem – not the greatest, bbut ok for an hour or so


A “simba”….the swahili you never knew you knew!


A memorial from the US Embassy bombings in Dar and Nairobi


The fish market






The Dar Skyline


A final drink on the beach before heading to the airport. Be warned, Dar has some major traffic issues, especially at the only real intersection to/from the airport. Always leave at leave an extra half over on top of what Google Maps says! We were in a standstill for over 30 minutes, which was pretty stressful as it had already taken longer than anticipated to find an Uber.

rivlinm

Great report. I felt like you only had a "meh" opinion of your WB flights, but when I flew them from ACC>LOS>KGL and KGL>DXB I was VERY impressed.

They kept the drinks flowing and the meals were quality Y meals.

I wonder if this route will survive, I know WB has grand expansion plans, and the region certainly needs a legit airline.

shefgab

Thankfully I got to the airport around 80 minutes before departure. There was a security scan, passport check, check in, then immigration, the another security scan, which happily ate up another 30 minutes. There is very little to do airside in Dar, but there was some free wifi.

The lounge


And general area


FIDS


The Dash had the same interior with proper J seats as the CR900. Luckily I ended up with 2 seats again.


The crew were generally good, but I did notice quite a few safety issues, like not putting (empty) seats upright for take off/landing, and allowing this child to sit on their mothers lap despite being around 4 year old. Plus having the seat full of bags in the exit row.


Route map (DXB is the new RUH!). NYC planned via ACC. As you can see, they originally planned to send the LGW flight via EBB.


Off we go, nearly on time.


If you look closely, you can see that other than the main roads, pretty much every other road is unsealed, ergo the giant traffic jams on the only proper roads.


On this 1 hour hop, there was just a pass of the snack basket. The cookie was ok, but the macadamia nuts were amazing.


Drinks came around too. Red wine this evening


I was happy that sitting on the right was the correct choice for the chance to spot Mt Kilimanjaro. Quite a sight!


Touchdown in JRO on time. The ground stop was announced at 40 minutes, which is pretty accurate. Around 15 people joined the 30 or so that boarded in DAR.


On this 90 minute sector a hot snack was served – spring roll, meat ball, hash brown (already eaten!) plus cake and bread and wine. Very acceptable.


We touched down in Kigali 20 minutes early. There was an A330 from KL recently arrived from AMS en route to EBB. Sadly it was a little behind schedule, so there were still quite a few KL passengers queueing for visas on arrival.



The last time I was in Rwanda, a visa wasn’t required. It’s sad to see they now exist. The process is very easy though….go and pay ($30, cards accepted) at one desk, you’re given a print out, then join the normal line. The entire thing took around 10 minutes.

Given WB and Rwanda are trying to build up a brand and a bit of a connecting hub, i’m surprised they have introduced visas. I mean $30 isn’t going to help Rwandas bottom line much, but it could be enough to scare people away from coming? And WB seem to have made no effort to introduce a stopover program or anything like that. Maybe it’s in the pipeline?

I had booked an Airbnb for my night in Kigali. I thought about staying in the Hotel Milles Collines (aka Hotel Rwanda), but given my late arrival, and early departure, it didn’t seem very good value. Next time! My driver was waiting, and I was soon at a nice residential villa for the night.

A lovely breakfast on the veranda.



Before my 1015 taxi ride back to KGL, I went for a bit of a walk around town. After the humidity of Dar, Kigali was delightfully fresh.

shefgab

Well, I think they were a 3.5* airline. Nice new hardware, but the airport in KGL is "meh", and the staff need polishing. Sure, they are friendly and quick to respond to requests, but they were not at all proactive. The food was fairly good, drinks was average. The lack of diet drinks and no beer on the KGL-LHR leg was a bit of a let down personally.

ET and KQ aren't far down the road. That said, it would be nice to see them succeed. I just hope load factors pick up! (assuming there is some major expansion work in KGL!)

shefgab

Back at KGL, there was an interesting security set up. Every vehicle enterting the airport has a full screening. Everyone out, bags checked by sniifer dogs, boot and bonnet open, before being allowed to proceed to the drop off zone.

There is then a document check, then a bag x-ray before getting to the check in desks. Thankfully, the LGW flight leaves at noon, and is pretty much the only flight for a few hours, so there were very few other people. I cannot imagine how busy it would be around 7am with the WB hub going out from 8am, or in the evening with SN and KL longhuals leaving. Again, leave plenty of time!

There was no queue in the sparkling new departures hall. I enquired about an upgrade to J – I was quoted $500, which was okish, but knowing the flight was empty down the back, decided to save my pennies.


The view from immigration!



The departures lounge. Tip! The smaller of the two duty free stores seemed much cheaper than the bigger one. I got a bottle of rum for $10 – in the other shop it was $20!


As you can see, it was a very quiet time of day. The load was around 40 pax, so the airport was nearly deserted.


There was a final security check at the gate. My water bottle was taken, but they didn’t want liquid bags out, and I had a 150ml bottle of suncream, and 125ml canister of DEET with me (I checked a bag in going down)….so some mixed messages there!


Again, everyone got a plastic bp when boarding the bus


All aboard! I was happy to see it was the other WB A330 taking us back. I’ve now been on nearly half the fleet!




I think this was the 737 that was delivered the previous day.


Take off was a few minutes late


Soon we were over the Congo


As mentioned before, there was no beer on board, so I went with a white wine and soda water


And more macadamia nuts


By the time the trolley got to me for lunch, I was told that they were out of beef and only had the fish. No problem. It was very tasty


Over the big desert




Quiet cabin


Two hours before landing, a snack was served. Again the other choice (chicken?) was gone, so I was left with the acceptable beef burger. I think SOP maybe should be to start one service at the front, then the other from the back to ensure everyone can have a first choice for one meal.


Red and white


WB offer 10MB free wifi which is nice of them. Prices seemed ok I guess if you’re desperate.




Over the south coast




There were quite a few other aircraft in the hold. I snapped this DY B737 only to later find out that a friend on mine was onboard and got a photo of us!


Just a few minutes behind schedule, we touch down in LGW, ending up at the same gate we left from.



So, a busy but quite fun weekend in Africa!

Rwandair was fairly good. I have no qualms flying them again, especially with such good rates and empty planes!

Thanks for reading! Please post any comments or questions below

flying_blue_white_red

Hi Gabriel,

Congrats for this unusual route for you and thank you very much for this first TR about WB's longest flights. I was eagerly waiting for your unbiased review.
Looks like you definitely know how to spice up your week ends .

Too bad we've missed each other as I'm packing right now heading off to Africa, thus don't have much time to fully read and comment properly.


For sure, A couple of years ago, when departing from Accra, Brazzaville, Douala and Lagos, RwandAir was offering a generous free night and city tour while transiting through Kigali (which could be great also for long layovers):
(one of their offers from ACC)

https://www.rwandair.com/Special-off...ers/From-ACCRA

So yes you are right WB/Rwanda should resume or extend this program


Of course, will go through details asap

Regards
Léonard

our_kid

Very enjoyable TR thanks shefgab

Romanianflyer

Indeed, nice destinations & airline we rarely hear about!

Thanks for sharing!

nequine

Thanks for the nice trip report. At least you had something interesting to say when you got back to work over what you did at the weekend!!

roadwarrier

Great read, thank you!
I remember years ago, doing a JNB - KGL trip in Y - it was horrid. I asked for vodka and tonic, I eventually got 8 miniature vodkas and no mixer. Eventually, just before landing I was given a warm Fanta orange. And no ice was loaded..........

Anyhow, I took the minis with me - they came in handy when I went over to Bukhavu in the DRC.

flatlander

Thanks for posting this. It's interesting to see an airline and a country rarely discussed on FlyerTalk.

Your mention of the Hôtel de Mille Collines and Hotel Rwanda makes me wonder what lingering tension you found, after the Rwandan Genocide. Are there places some people don't go, cultural traps for the unwary, and so on? Obviously, following the general principle of not talking about religion or politics in a foreign country is always a good idea. If one does so, is it generally a place one can get around without inadvertently getting into trouble?

Also, did you find any Rwandan tea for sale? It's quite hard to find in Europe, and is very nice.

worldtraveller73

Nice report and a great way to spend the weekend!!