December 10, 2019: Qatar Airways has agreed to take a 60 percent stake in a new $1.3 billion Bugesera International Airport in Rwanda.
The country's infrastructure minister Claver Gatete told a news conference that a construction company was still being sought to build the airport and that once work starts, the first phase would take five years to complete.
The @RwandaGov and @qatarairways today signed an investment partnership for Rwanda’s new international airport.
The agreements signed will mark a key milestone in the development of Rwanda’s vibrant aviation sector, in the context of the excellent bilateral relationship between Qatar and Rwanda.
The plans for the new airport are a modification of those drawn up in 2017 for a smaller facility with a maximum capacity of 4.5 million passengers a year in the same location.
Company and government officials said at the time that Rwanda had signed a deal with the African division of Portuguese construction firm Mota-Engil MOTA.LS to build an international airport at a cost of $818 million.