We’ll give you a few hints. It involves an Airbus A330. There’s an airline, too – makes sense, right… if there’s an aircraft, there must be an airline included in the mix.

Yep, you guessed it. An African airline, namely RwandAir, is due to receive two Airbus A330 wide-body aircraft next year, and the airline is considering routing the planned flights to Guangzhou and Mumbai via Dubai.

Plans by RwandAir to launch Mumbai flights, using a B737-800NG via Dar es Salaam, came to naught when the Tanzanian aviation regulators denied the airline fifth freedom rights, claiming their own national airline was planning to launch flights, a preposterous suggestion causing widespread amusement considering the moribund state of Air Tanzania.

The Airbus order, however, puts paid to that plan as RwandAir will be able to launch flights from Kigali directly to Mumbai, but given that the airline apparently holds fifth freedom rights out of Dubai, it may well be a viable option to route east-bound intercontinental flights via DXB and pick up additional traffic from there.

The source attributed the information to RwandAir’s Deputy CEO, Mr. Jean-Paul Nyirubutama, who is in the United Arab Emirates (UAE) for the Dubai Air Show, where he reportedly spoke to the media.

To boost continental flights from across Africa, key to feeding traffic into their planned intercontinental services to China, India, and Europe, a further two Boeing B737-800NG SkyInteriors will be joining the fleet in 2016 as well, very likely staged to arrive prior to the two A330s which are due in Kigali in September and December next year respectively.

Dubai is served daily with three flights routing via Mombasa, where the airline again has fifth freedom rights in both directions.