RwandAir, the national flag carrier of Rwanda, has successfully renewed its certificate for the IATA Operational Safety Audit (IOSA) to remain competitive.

The airline’s IATA – IOSA registry will be valid from June 13, 2016 until June 13, 2018, officials from the International Air Transport Association (IATA) have said.

The IATA Operational Safety Audit (IOSA) programme is an internationally recognized and accepted evaluation system designed to assess the operational management and control systems of an airline.

All IATA members are IOSA registered and must remain registered to maintain IATA membership

The national carrier was certified in 2014 and handed over this certificate after successfully safety audits were conducted on the airline’s operations system.

The renewal, according to Sonia Kamikazi, the airline’s Corporate Quality Assurance Manager, is vital to the sustainability of RwandAir and will “boost competitiveness of Africa’s fastest and youngest airline.”

“It ensures continuous development of IATA standards, regulatory requirements and industry best practices within our operations”, Kamikazi, told The New Times.

RwandAir passed this IOSA renewal audit with an exemplary report that had minimal findings and observations, following an audit conducted on RwandAir operations system from January 29, to February 04, 2016 by the audit organisation WAKE QA, she added.

Currently, the airline flies to more than 17 destinations, including Nairobi, Entebbe, Mombasa, Bujumbura, Lusaka, Juba, Douala, Dar-es-salaam, Kilimanjalo, Johannesburg, Dubai, Lagos, Libreville and Brazzaville, among others.