At RwandAir's headquarters at Kigali Airport, they have mutliple images of a Boeing 787 Dreamliner in their livery around the office. This mock up shows a hopeful operation date of 2015.

I have been learning a lot about Rwanda and RwandAir over the past few days and will be sharing everything over the next week or so. I wanted to give a quick update on RwandAir’s aircraft and route planning, since it is quite surprising and involves a few Boeing 787 Dreamliners.

The airline has just taken delivery of their first new aircraft ever, a Boeing 737-800 with Sky Interior. According to RwandAir CEO John Mirenge this is just the beginning. He stated that they hope to increase their current fleet of six aircraft to 12 over the next five years and up to 18 by 2020. Currently they operate a fleet of two Boeing 737-500s, one Boeing 737-800 (a second one coming in October), two CRJ-200s and one Dash 8. By 2020, they hope to take delivery of additional Boeing 737s, ATR-72, Embraer regional jets and Boeing 787 Dreamliners — new.

Mirenge told AirlineReporter.com that he hopes to fly the Dreamliners to China, Europe and possibly the eastcoast of the United States. The airline hopes to create a hub of air transportation in Kigali, providing the demand for the larger aircraft.

It seems that flying the Dreamliner by 2015 might be a bit optimistic. It might be difficult to get a delivery slot by then and Kigali is in the process of building a new airport to better handle the expected increase of traffic, but is not set to be completed until 2018.

It is unusual for an airline to be so candid about their future plans of aircraft purchases and future routes. However, RwandAir is a different sort of airline and definitely have created a positive momentum.