Royal Air Burundi

Royal Air Burundi
Commenced operations	1962
Ceased operations	1963
Fleet size	1 Lockheed Constellation
Headquarters	Usumbura, Burundi

Last updated February 19, 2019

Royal Air Burundi was an airline from Ruanda-Urundi and was based in Usumbura.

Ruanda-Urundi was a territory in the African Great Lakes region, once part of German East Africa, which was ruled by Belgium between 1916 and 1962. Occupied by the Belgians during the East African Campaign during World War I, the territory was under Belgian military occupation from 1916 to 1922 and later became a Belgian-controlled Class B Mandate under the League of Nations from 1922 to 1945. After the disestablishment of the League and World War II, Ruanda-Urundi became a Trust Territory of the United Nations, still under Belgian control. In 1962, the mandate became independent as the two separate countries of Rwanda and Burundi.

The airline was formed in 1962 to perform non-scheduled passenger flights utilising a Lockheed L.049 Constellation N9412H, which was obtained from Las Vegas Hacienda. The national airline of newly independent Burundi made numerous passenger flights to Europe, and ceased operations at the end of 1963.^[1]^[2]

Lockheed Constellation four-engine propeller-driven airliner

The Lockheed Constellation ("Connie") is a propeller-driven, four-engine airliner built by Lockheed Corporation between 1943 and 1958 at Burbank, California. Lockheed built 856 in numerous models—all with the same triple-tail design and dolphin-shaped fuselage. Most were powered by four 18-cylinder Wright R-3350 Duplex-Cyclones. The Constellation was used as a civil airliner and as a military and civilian air transport, seeing service in the Berlin and the Biafran airlifts. The Constellation series was the first pressurized-cabin civil airliner series to go into widespread use. Its pressurized cabin enabled large numbers of commercial passengers to fly well above most bad weather for the first time, thus significantly improving the general safety and ease of air-travel. Three of them served as the presidential aircraft for Dwight D. Eisenhower.

Burundi, officially the Republic of Burundi, is a landlocked country amid the African Great Lakes region where East and Central Africa converge. The capital is Gitega, having moved from Bujumbura in December 2018. The southwestern border is adjacent to Lake Tanganyika.

Related Research Articles

EgyptAir is the flag carrier airline of Egypt. The airline is based at Cairo International Airport, its main hub, operating scheduled passenger and freight services to more than 75 destinations in the Middle East, Europe, Africa, Asia, and the Americas. Egyptair is a member of Star Alliance and the Arab Air Carriers Organization.

Air Gabon was the national, state-owned airline of Gabon, operating out of Libreville International Airport to a variety of destinations across Western and Southern Africa, as well as to Europe, South America and the Middle East. Founded in 1951, the airline went bankrupt in 2006.

Société Nationale Malgache de Transports Aériens, Société Anonyme, operating as Air Madagascar, is an airline based in Antananarivo, Madagascar. It is the national airline of Madagascar operating services to Europe, Asia and neighbouring African and Indian Ocean island destinations, from its main base, Ivato International Airport in Antananarivo. It also operates an extensive domestic network.

Air Burundi was the state-owned national airline of Burundi, although in practice it has not been operational since 2009.

Lignes Nationales Aériennes Congolaises, also known as Lina Congo, was the national airline of the Republic of Congo.

Royal Swazi National Airways Corporation was the national airline of the Kingdom of Swaziland. Headquartered in Mbabane with its operational base at Matsapha Airport near Manzini, the airline was founded in 1978.

South West African Airways (SWAA) was the first commercial air service in South West Africa. It operated from 1930 until 1935, when it was taken over by South African Airways.

Bechuanaland National Airways was the national airline of the Bechuanaland Protectorate and was based in Francistown.

Air Niger was an airline based in Niamey, Niger.

Puntavia Airline de Djibouti was an airline based in Djibouti City in Djibouti. It was founded in 1991 and initially operated Let L410 Turbolets, on irregular scheduled services from Djibouti to Addis Ababa, Jeddah, the Arab states of the Persian Gulf and Somalia. The airline later operated a mixture of Soviet-built aircraft, as well as a leased Boeing 727. Puntavia ceased all operations in 1996.

Airlines proliferated in Africa because, in many countries, road and rail networks are not well developed due to financial issues, terrain, and rainy seasons. Ben R. Guttery, author of Encyclopedia of African Airlines, said "Although most of the carriers have never been large by European or American standards, they have had tremendous impact on the economy and the people." Many larger African airlines are owned partially or completely by national governments. Some African airlines have European airlines as major shareholders. For instance, KLM has a 26% stake in Kenya Airways and British Airways has an 18% stake in Comair.

Société Nationale des Transports Aériens du Rwanda, or Air Rwanda as the airline was commonly known as the national airline of Rwanda, with its base at Kigali International Airport in Kigali. The airline operated for 21 years. In 1996 the airline was rebranded and renamed to Rwanda Air which finally led to the formation of RwandAir in 2002.

Elders Colonial Airways was an airline based in Lagos, Nigeria, and was an associate of Imperial Airways. The airline operated from 1935–1940.

Air Inter Gabon is a scheduled and charter airline based in Port-Gentil, Gabon.

Ligne Aérienne du Roi Albert (LARA) was a short-lived civilian airline in the Belgian Congo colony.

Air Tchad, or Air Chad, was a Chadian airline that operated domestic and regional services, as well as charter flights to neighbouring countries in Central and West Africa and charter cargo services to France, Italy and Saudi Arabia.

Air Centrafrique was the flag carrier of the Central African Republic from 1966 to the late 1970s. The company operated domestic services. It had its headquarters in Bangui.

Agence et Messageries Aérienne du Zaïre (AMAZ), formerly Agence et Messageries Aérienne du Congo (AMAC), was a Zairean airline. It had its headquarters at Aérodrome de N'Dolo in Kinshasa. The carrier was formed in the 1960s to take over some services flown by Cogeair, and provided feeder services to Air Zaïre. It ceased operations in the late 1970s.

Air Brousse was a Congolese airline. The carrier was formed in 1955 by a group of Belgians and flew services within the Belgian Congo, mainly from Leopoldville and Luluabourg. Air Brousse also operated feeder services for Sabena. It had its headquarters in Leopoldville.

References

↑ "Royal Air Burundi". Aerotransport Data Bank. Retrieved 2009-11-06.
↑ Guttery, Ben R. (1998). Encyclopedia of African airlines. Ben Guttery. p. 29. ISBN 0-7864-0495-7 . Retrieved 2009-10-14.

This article relating to an African airline is a stub. You can help Wikipedia by expanding it.

This Burundi-related article is a stub. You can help Wikipedia by expanding it.

This page is based on this Wikipedia article
Text is available under the CC BY-SA 4.0 license; additional terms may apply.
Images, videos and audio are available under their respective licenses.

[1] "Royal Air Burundi". Aerotransport Data Bank. Retrieved 2009-11-06.

[guttery-2] Guttery, Ben R. (1998). Encyclopedia of African airlines. Ben Guttery. p. 29. ISBN 0-7864-0495-7 . Retrieved 2009-10-14.

v t e Airlines of Burundi
Current	Afra Airways Air Burundi
Defunct	City Connexion Airlines Royal Air Burundi