South African Airways starts flights to Rwanda, Burundi

South Africa’s national carrier on Monday started commercial flights to the capital cities of Rwanda and Burundi, it said in a statement.

“South African Airways (SAA) today launched flights to two more destinations on the African continent from Johannesburg to Kigali in Rwanda and onwards to Bujumbura in Burundi,” the airline announced.

SAA will fly the route with an Airbus A319 carrying 120 passengers on Tuesdays, Fridays and Sundays, with return flights to Johannesburg on Mondays, Wednesdays and Saturdays, it said.

The flights will take travellers and freight and build SAA’s presence in the Great Lakes region of Central and Eastern Africa, according to the airline.

“SAA is focused on strengthening its intra-Africa network in line with its Africa expansion strategy,” said Theunis Potgieter, the company’s commercial general manager.

Founded 67 years ago, the airline currently flies to 20 destinations around Africa and also runs inter-continental flights. The company announced last year it would start direct flights to Beijing at the end of January 2012.