Flying to Kigali on a budget
Kigali is a mid-sized city served by 1 airport in Rwanda. Across the city's airports, around 15 airlines operate roughly 40 documented route pairings, connecting Kigali to approximately 16 direct destinations worldwide. For budget travellers, having multiple airports in one city is usually good news. Secondary airports tend to host the lowest-cost carriers and the cheapest fares, but the trade-off is a slower (and sometimes pricier) ground transfer to the city centre.
The cheapest combination of base fare plus ground transport almost never lives at the same airport. As a rule of thumb, fly into the most-served airport when you have luggage, late arrival times, or a fixed work meeting. Fly into the cheapest secondary airport when you are travelling light, have flexible plans, and are arriving mid-day with the buses still running. We break down the airports below in order of route volume, so you can quickly see which carriers and destinations each one specialises in.
Airports serving Kigali
Tips for landing in Kigali cheap
- Compare airports before booking. The headline-cheapest fare into the secondary airport is sometimes wiped out by a EUR 20+ ground transfer to the city centre.
- Check the last public-transport time. Late arrivals can force a pricey taxi if you miss the bus or train; verify against the inbound landing time, not the scheduled.
- Pre-book ground transport for arrival. A pre-paid bus ticket bought online is usually the cheapest predictable option; airport-counter taxi rates can run two to three times the metered fare.
- If you have multiple airports, fly in and out of different ones. Use Google Flights' multi-city search to capture the cheapest combination of one-ways across two airports.
- Watch for currency exchange traps. The airport bureaux are the worst place to change money; withdraw from a major-bank ATM in arrivals instead.
Top destinations from Kigali
| Code | City | Country |
|---|---|---|
| EBB | Entebbe | Uganda |
| NBO | Nairobi | Kenya |
| BJM | Bujumbura | Burundi |
| ADD | Addis Ababa | Ethiopia |
| JNB | Johannesburg | South Africa |
| BRU | Brussels | Belgium |
| BZV | Brazzaville | Congo (Brazzaville) |
| DAR | Dar Es Salaam | Tanzania |
| DXB | Dubai | United Arab Emirates |
| IST | Istanbul | Turkey |
| JRO | Kilimanjaro | Tanzania |
| JUB | Juba | South Sudan |
| KME | Kamembe | Rwanda |
| LBV | Libreville | Gabon |
| LOS | Lagos | Nigeria |
| MBA | Mombasa | Kenya |
Airlines flying from Kigali
United Airlines (UA)
United States
Delta Air Lines (DL)
United States
Air France (AF)
France
Lufthansa Cargo (LH)
Germany
KLM Royal Dutch Airlines (KL)
Netherlands
Air Canada (AC)
Canada
Turkish Airlines (TK)
Turkey
Ethiopian Airlines (ET)
Ethiopia
Qatar Airways (QR)
Qatar
Egyptair (MS)
Egypt
South African Airways (SA)
South Africa
Brussels Airlines (SN)
Belgium
Kenya Airways (KQ)
Kenya
Rwandair Express (WB)
Rwanda
USA Jet Airlines (U7)
United States