One of KLM’s relatively overlooked widebody aircraft, the Airbus A330-200 has served the Dutch flag carrier since the mid-2000s, specializing in long, thin routes. However, after two decades of faithful service, these aircraft’s time in the Sun is coming to an end, being replaced by the A350-900. A few remain in use, though, primarily being flown to Aruba, Montreal, Edmonton, Lagos, Sint Maarten, and Kigali. As I’ve never done a flight to Rwanda before, I decided that a great way to do my first flight with the KLM A330-200 would be to fly it to KGL. Hope y’all enjoy it as much as I did!
Server: Solo
Airline: KLM Royal Dutch Airlines
Aircraft: Airbus A330-200
Origin: Amsterdam Airport Schiphol, Haarlemmermeer, Netherlands (AMS)
Destination: Kigali International Airport, Kigali, Rwanda (KGL)
Flight Number: KL535
Route: EHAM-HRYR
Seat: 2J (World Business)
Time En Route: 8 Hours 36 Minutes
After spending a couple hours at KLM’s superb Crown Lounge 52, we’re lining up to board our aircraft for the roughly eight and a half-hour flight to Kigali. Today, we’ll be on one of the few remaining active A330-200s in the KLM fleet for the first time. We’re flying on PH-AOA, KLM’s oldest A330-200, named “Dam Amsterdam”, and we’re excited to try out business class on it. We had a good time in it when we flew on one of the airline’s A330-300s to Calgary a few months back, and hopefully this flight is at least as good as that one was.
Taxiing along the length of Runway 09/27 as a company 737-800 gets airborne for a destination somewhere in Europe. Despite being in its second decade of service, the cabin on this particular A330-200 is incredibly well-cared for. If it had individual seats with direct aisle access for all, it’d likely be tied for the best one we’ve ever been aboard. However, the lack of direct aisle access for us won’t be a problem, as the aisle seat next to us is unoccupied.
Getting airborne from the Buitenveldertbaan. Since we’re taking a pretty steep climb angle out of AMS, the engines are at a higher-than-usual thrust setting for an aircraft with our load. Not that we’re complaining about the buzzsaw sound, of course. It’s one of the main reasons we like sitting in front of the engines, aside from being in World Business.
Climbing over the farmland south of Amsterdam. As we head to our cruising altitude, we’re partially reclining our seat to settle back for the journey ahead. Even though it’s an older seat on an aircraft whose days are numbered, it’s in perfect working order. In addition to this, the cabin has only 18 seats in it, accentuating the feeling of privacy and exclusivity, which is another point in this aircraft’s favor.
Cruising at 35,000 feet over the Mediterranean Sea. The lunch service on this flight is decent - not as good as breakfast on our previous one, but somewhat better than the rather bland dinner on it. Aside from the food, though, the cabin service is outstanding. After we’ve finished lunch, we’re putting in a order for a drink while we watch the Med go by out the window with the starboard engine humming along.
Over the Sahel of eastern Chad as the Sun goes down. After lunch, we took a quick nap before starting a movie on the IFE screen. While, like the seat, the IFE system is showing its age, it’s likewise very well-maintained, and we had no problems using it. Now, in the final hours of our flight, we’re checking out the menu for our pre-arrival meal.
In our initial descent over Uganda not long after nightfall. A little while ago, we ran into some heavy turbulence over the Democratic Republic of the Congo as our flight crew skirted the edge of a line of thunderstorms, but the flight since has been smooth. Since we encountered it as the Sun went down, we were bounced all around the sky while towering thunderheads were periodically illuminated by forks of lightning. It was simultaneously an eerie and beautiful experience, one that’ll make this flight a very, very memorable one.
Arriving in Kigali on Runway 28. Due to some gusts on final, the flight crew ended up setting us down on the starboard main gear truck first, but man alive, it was as good a one-truck landing as they come. Once the main and nose gear got on the ground, the spoilers came up and the reversers open. Now we’re rapidly slowing down for a quick exit and short taxi to our gate.
Pulling into the gate at KGL with the starboard engine powered off. We’re not the only A330-200 in town tonight, as there’s one of the Rwandan flag carrier, RwandAir, on the other side of the ramp. Like most passengers, we’re rapidly getting our things ready to deplane. We’re having to leave the aircraft via airstair tonight, so we’re lucky it’s nice out.
Looking back at our aircraft before going into the terminal. Baggage and cargo containers are being offloaded, while bagge and cargo going to Schiphol in a few hours is waiting to be put on board the aircraft. KLM’s A330-200 business class, though not nearly as modern as the 787 or A350, still holds up very well all these years later. The food and service were respectively decent and amazing, which helped make the somewhat dated-looking cabin feel like it was well worth the price. Definitely something we’re going to come back to while we still can!