Rwanda and some countries in the region, such as Kenya, resume commercial flights on August 1. That means that their international airports will also be open for business and airline, airport and travel agencies’ employees must be heaving a sigh of relief. Covid-19 has not been very easy on many countries’ economies and it does not seem to be letting up. Instead, cases are spiking all over the world and no one is safe. Resuming flights for Kenya Airways and RwandAir, which, apart from Ethiopian Airlines, are the continent’s main air bridges was not an easy decision. For a young airline like RwandAir, grounding its planes was like a stranglehold and its only little salvation was converting some of its passenger planes to carry cargo, but that was just a drop in the ocean. Now, many safety measures have been announced in preparation to resume flights, but not everyone is aware going by comments on social media. With flights resuming in just a few days, there should be no unanswered questions. Many people are still terrified of flying in a confined space for hours and long stays in transit. Those have been the main vessels of the contaminations. So travellers need reassurance that things are under control. Rwanda has been fortunate so far to be spared the worst because authorities left no stone unturned in containing the virus. With the anticipated reopening of the skies, it calls for extra vigilance. Rwandans have this culture of “escorting” their friends or relatives in droves, even when they are just flying across the border. That is a practice that should be discouraged because it falls under ingedo zitari ngombwa (Unnecessary movements). Otherwise there should be no need to panic because of the reopening of our skies because the country was tested at the most critical time. It was a time when very little was known about Covid-19 and yet it managed to come out of it somehow safer than many.
