airDC project relaunched under name "Korongo"

[RoMax]

Don't expect the first flight before autumn 2010.
The name will not be AirDC, it is not available anymore, but Korongo, which indeed means CraneBird.

Maybe the name will change, but it would definately be a waiste of money if they don't keep the (in my opinion beautiful) 'Tigertail'...

SN said that the name would be different from AirDC, because AirDC is the airline they want to launch with Hewa Bora. This new project has notting to do with Hewa Bora, so they don't want (maybe even can't) use the name AirDC. But they can use a similar paint maybe, with another name.

[Shanti]

Lets hope they keep the same colours because they are really beautiful!

[diminbru]

anyone a picture of an AirDC aircraft?

EDIT
forget my question : have found it, I'll share :
http://www.airliners.net/search/photo.s ... rch=OO-MJE

[jan_olieslagers]

Lets hope they keep the same colours because they are really beautiful!

Who cares about the color scheme? Much better to see them flying with whatever paint, or even without, than see them sitting idle however flashy colored!

[cathay belgium]

Who cares about the color scheme? Much better to see them flying with whatever paint, or even without, than see them sitting idle however flashy colored!

Jan,

You're 100 % right, but some plane 'freaks' loves ('nu eenmaal' ) nice liveries!
I love the most also a plane what it's build for FLYING but I like also some nice liveries,
altough this is just (bijzaak).
I hope they keep this livery because:
* it's nice
* it's already done and thus cheaper than a repaint
I just hope that they also put the brand BRUSSELS AIRLINES on it just for a better
integration/embedding of the brand in the heart of Congo. ( or just the SN code,they will remember).
( AIR Korongo/DC/cranebird/whatever.. by SN,.. for SN,..in the SN family or whatever! )

Hope to see some official announcements soon..

CX-B

[TCAS_climb]

SN/BruAir ? I wouldn't count too much on it. A crane on the tail... doesn't that remind you anything ? Yep, bingo !
http://www.airliners.net/photo/Lufthans ... 1595731/L/

Now a "tiger crane", mmmmh... In a dinosaur museum perhaps ?

[Air Key West]

Sorry for the Le Figaro article in French only.
http://www.lefigaro.fr/societes/2010/02 ... ntiel-.php
In spite of the title : "Africa has a strong potential", Royal Air Maroc's CEO says "it is an illusion to think that an African regional airline can be profitable".
I was never in favour of the AirDC project and continue to have serious doubts on the profitability of Korongo. But the future will tell.

[diminbru]

Sorry for the Le Figaro article in French only.
http://www.lefigaro.fr/societes/2010/02 ... ntiel-.php
In spite of the title : "Africa has a strong potential", Royal Air Maroc's CEO says "it is an illusion to think that an African regional airline can be profitable".
I was never in favour of the AirDC project and continue to have serious doubts on the profitability of Korongo. But the future will tell.

Of course that the CEO of RAM will say that Korongo won't be profitable. This will mean competition for his own RAM.

[Air Key West]

He didn't say Korongo won't be profitable. He said, in general terms, that an African regional airline cannot be profitbale, inter alia, because the Africans do not have enough purchasing power to buy air tickets. I think he has a point. Korongo might succeed because it will be centered around a rich area where demand for business travel might make the project profitable (please, note that I am using the conditional tense for "might").

[Conti764]

He didn't say Korongo won't be profitable. He said, in general terms, that an African regional airline cannot be profitbale, inter alia, because the Africans do not have enough purchasing power to buy air tickets. I think he has a point. Korongo might succeed because it will be centered around a rich area where demand for business travel might make the project profitable (please, note that I am using the conditional tense for "might").

The domestic or European branch of every big airline in the world is losing money, the profits are made on the long haul sectors. High yield customers, cargo,...

Korongo could work the same way for SN but on the other end of their long haul market. If they loose money with Korongo, but the airline provides a continuous stream of extra clients for the long haul ops, the company is worth the effort.

After all, it are not only Africans who would be using Korongo, but foreign passengers as well, and probably more then locals, they bring in the money and Korongo, if played well, could be an extra reason to choose SN (or Star Alliance for that matter) to fly to Africa.

[Air Key West]

You are absolutely right. More than a domestic carrier, I have always thought that Korongo would mainly act as a feeder airline to SN's Kinshasa flights, making daily nonstop flights to/from FIH extremely profitable.
I must admit the DRC is one of the African countries I don't know well at all, but I think that given the south-african interests present in the former Katanga province, Lubumbashi-Jo'burg flights could be profitable, certainly in code share with SA. And apparently, Australians are also present in the area. So, these flights could also act as feeder flights to SA flights to Australia. Although there is already an SA flight JNB-FBM.

[LJ]

Does anyone know if the venture (Congo Express) which was supposed to set up by South African has taken the skies? If I´m not mistaken their first flight should have been in February (and we are currently only one week away from the end of February).

[cathay belgium]

Hi,


Thinking of the need of Africa domestic and that the africans don't have money to buy them could be very wrong..
There are a lot of poor and very poor people in AFI but also a lot of rich..
And you can't compare AFI domestic with europe domestic as things were way out of proportion in AFI.
( distances,other travel options... )
For ex. Congo, there is a wide rich envirement of mining,copper,the thing of mobilephones..,and
a lot of other factories.. all very rudimenatary poor export but the bosses,technicians needs also parts
of machines, and need to travel with engineers,technicians,..
And the feeding of FIH to SN's network,all those 'african europeans' who travel homeward and back..
Now a trustyworthy airline could fill a gap here..
Thinks for once on all the chinese,french,europeans that are in AFI.
I don't say it's gonna be easy but I'm quite sure there's a market.
And you don't need the newest materials and standards as in europe..
CX-B

[Conti764]

I must admit the DRC is one of the African countries I don't know well at all, but I think that given the south-african interests present in the former Katanga province, Lubumbashi-Jo'burg flights could be profitable, certainly in code share with SA. And apparently, Australians are also present in the area. So, these flights could also act as feeder flights to SA flights to Australia. Although there is already an SA flight JNB-FBM.

When the news broke, there was a similar discussion on A.net and there was one poster from the DRC who laid out the possible Congo market for SN...

If I remember correctly, especially Mbuji-Mayi, Kananga, Kindu and Goma could be succesful in terms of pax and yields. But I don't know his exact arguments anymore. The Forest Group would be an important factor in the whole operation of Korongo.

I wonder what ultimate goal SN has set for Korongo? 'Just' a domestic' Congo airline or (in the future) an international African airline as well?

[Conti764]

And you don't need the newest materials and standards as in europe..
CX-B

Now that could be another advantage. What is sub-standard in Europe, is above-standard in Africa. It could allow SN (or maybe LH given the fact SN doesn't own a lot of its fleet) to get even more out of their old, written off equipment. I assume LH gets a foothold in Korongo as well and thus takes pieces of the cake. If they could send some of their soon redundant equipment to Congo, it could prove better for the than just sending these planes to the desert.

[fretn]

their collection of 737-300's that are being fased out maybe?

one question, what if the plane breaks down, and needs repairs...
there won't be a replacement plane?

[Air Key West]

The majority of airlines in Africa (most of them we don't even know by name in Europe) don't have replacement aircraft. If there is a breakdown, the flight is delayed (sometimes for many hours) or just cancelled. When Air Afrique still operated, it was also referred to as "Air Peut-Être" ("Air Perhaps"). Africa is a completely different ball game. I'm sure that sending "old" equipemnet over thre is a wise solution. You need technically reliable aircraft that don't break down every other day. Because even if Korongo will have a strong base in Lubumbashi with all the spare parts and technicians, what if an aircraft breaks down out of its base ? This isn't Europe. It's Africa with all its charm (I mean it), but also with all its problems.

[Stij]

The majority of airlines in Africa (most of them we don't even know by name in Europe) don't have replacement aircraft. If there is a breakdown, the flight is delayed (sometimes for many hours) or just cancelled. When Air Afrique still operated, it was also referred to as "Air Peut-Être" ("Air Perhaps").

A bit like JetAirFly with OO-TUC before OO-JAP came in?

To all our JAF friends, just kidding!

Cheers,

Stij

[134flyer]

In this weekend’s “De Standaard” newspaper there was an article about the George Forrest Group. During an interview with it’s Vice President Pierre Chevalier, Korongo was also briefly mentioned. As already known, the George Forrest Group will have a 49% participation in Korongo. They hope to have the ‘structures ready’ by 30 June (celebration Independence Day Congo) after which they can start working on getting the airline operational.

Apart from Lubumbashi - Kinshasa, they also plan to fly from Kinshasa to Kolwesi & from Kinshasa to Mbuji-Mayi. It was not mentioned when they hope to actually start flying.

[brusselsairlinesfan]

@ tolipanebas : are you now bearing the new logo of Korongo ?!

And btw, any news on that side?