RwandAir, the national carrier of Rwanda, has taken delivery of its first Airbus A330 wide-body aircraft from Airbus, the first in East Africa.

The A330-200 nicknamed ‘Ubumwe’ (unity) touched down at Kigali International Airport at about 11am today and was greeted by the traditional water cannon salute.

Onboard the delivery flight were 38 Passengers including flight crew, RwandAir Technicians, RCCA Team, Airbus team and a team of journalists.

Addressing Journalists during the delivery ceremony, RwandAir's CEO John Mirenge said "The aircraft is the first of its kind in East Africa and will help boost RwandAir’s capacity to expand its wings globally"

“We will soon add Harare, Zimbabwe and Mumbai, India on our list of destinations before expanding to Western Europe” he added.

The new A330-200 has a capacity for 244 passengers in three classes – Business, Premium Economy and Economy. It also features Wi-Fi connectivity and onboard entertainment.

Worth about $250 million (about Rwf200 billion), the new aircraft brings RwandAir’s total fleet to nine with additional four planes expected to be delivered by end of February 2017.

A second and larger Airbus 330-300 will be delivered to RwandAir in November this year.