Govt in final talks with Qatar Airways over RwandAir equity

March 26, 2021: The Rwandan government is in final talks with Qatar Airways over the sale of a 49 percent stake in RwandAir, said Uzziel Ndagijimana, Rwanda's minister of finance and economic planning, reported ch-aviation.

Qatar Airways is in negotiations with the carrier since February 2020.

In 2019, Qatar Airways has agreed to take a 60 percent stake in a new $1.3 billion Bugesera International Airport in Rwanda. The new airport is being redesigned to accommodate 7 million passengers per year, which is located about 25 kilometres southeast of Kigali. Phase II expected to accommodate 14 million passengers a year, will commence operation by 2032. The details were revealed on the twitter page of the state-run Rwanda Development Board. The deal will allow Qatar Airways to not only build the airport, but to own and operate the facility in the future.

The airline's 2019 accounts lodged with the US Department of Transportation (DOT) in February show it registered an overall loss of $26.2 million in 2019 against revenue of $221.4 million.