African carrier RwandAir is to further expand its network within the continent with the launch of a new direct service to Douala, Cameroon from its Kigali International Airport base. The airline, the flag carrier of Rwanda, will introduce the four times weekly service on March 30, 2014 and will further support its growth in the Central and West African markets.

Douala will be the airline’s 16th destination since it rebranded in 2009 and will be its fifth link into West Africa complementing its existing services to Accra, Libreville, Brazzaville, Lagos. As well as supporting point-to-point demand the flight will also provide additional feed into Kigali International Airport for the carrier’s existing flights to the Middle East and expected future services into Europe and Asia.

RwandAir will utilise a Bombardier CRJ900NG on the route, seating seven passengers in Business Class and 68 in Economy. The Canadian-built regional jet is already deployed on the carrier’s daily services to Brazzaville, Bujumbura, Dar es Salaam, Entebbe and Nairobi, Entebbe. The operation of regional aircraft is key to supporting the carrier’s hub strategy and can provide a sustainable option in many markets that cannot support the larger traditional mainline jets.

The carrier’s fleet now consists of four Boeing 737 series aircraft, one Bombardier Dash 8-200 series and two CRJ-900NG regional jets, which arrived in November of 2012. The next arrival will be a Dash 8-Q400 that will introduce business class to its sole domestic route to Kamembe, from next month: RwandAir will become the 12th operator of the Q400NG in Africa.

The ongoing fleet expansion will also support future network growth and RwandAir confirms that a new link to Abidjan in the Ivory Coast is planned for 2014, while a number of other regional African destinations are under consideration including the Ethiopian capital Addis Ababa and Lusaka in Zambia.