Korongo Airlines: THE END

[bruteboeing]

OO-DJJ took off this morning.
Don't know if he's leaving for a new paint job or maybe it was just a training flight.
Pj

should be headed to NWI for paint

[EBKT]

It looks like Korongo Airlines will start very soon with their first domestic flight.

More info (only in Dutch): http://www.tijd.be/nieuws/ondernemingen ... .art?ckc=1

[fcw]

I wonder how much Belgian taxpayers money has been spent by the minister of foreign affairs, during his recent visit to the DRC, in order to get Korongo airborne?

[134flyer]

It looks like Korongo Airlines will start very soon with their first domestic flight.

More info (only in Dutch): http://www.tijd.be/nieuws/ondernemingen ... .art?ckc=1

This article was already published by De Tijd last week AND reported by MR_Boeing in this exact same thread a few posts back last week as well.

[EBKT]

It looks like Korongo Airlines will start very soon with their first domestic flight.

More info (only in Dutch): http://www.tijd.be/nieuws/ondernemingen ... .art?ckc=1

This article was already published by De Tijd last week AND reported by MR_Boeing in this exact same thread a few posts back last week as well.

you're absolutely right! Thanks for notifying me... spending my holidays abroad I missed this article and didn't notice it as well on Luchtzak, including the recent comment afterwards on this post...

[Ziplepingouin]

The second BAe is coming back from painting today. Not sure at what time...

[FLYZANTAN]

Mr Darjeeling, do you think that it may probably happen this way? Is it likely to last so long ? Thank you for informing. By for now.

[sn26567]

Korongo Airlines is still not operational. Christophe Allard, the executive director of the company believes that the launch of the airline is blocked in an injustifiable way. In an interview with Radio Okapi, Christophe Allard believes that the company meets all criteria and all of the prescribed Congolese and international regulations on aviation.

Interview: Christophe Allard is questioned by Innocent Olenga

[OO-LRM]

Korongo Airlines is still not operational. Christophe Allard, the executive director of the company believes that the launch of the airline is blocked in an injustifiable way. In an interview with Radio Okapi, Christophe Allard believes that the company meets all criteria and all of the prescribed Congolese and international regulations on aviation.

Interview: Christophe Allard is questioned by Innocent Olenga

Et le matabiche?En tous cas il semble etre mal investi!

[sn26567]

Et le matabiche?En tous cas il semble etre mal investi!

Please use English in this forum. I guess you mean that SN's money did not land in the right pockets...

[Flanker]

I never understood why they invested in a hangar and 3 aircraft before getting all the Congolese bureaucratic approvals. It's not like it's the first time SN is in Africa, they should know how things work over there.

But anyway they did, so now it's time that they make up by putting some real pressure on the administration. Even if they have to plant a tent in the CAA building, it's time that they figure out who's getting in the way (they really don't know? hard to believe) and figure a way to make him sign the damned paper. If they're afraid of a few Congolese CAA officers, they should start imagining the 3000 angry faces of the SN employees and the other hundred angry faces of Korongo employees if they don't go through with this. What will LH think of it?

What is it with this import certificate?
Most airlines in Congo don't even have properly licensed crew, so I don't think that an import certificate should stop the game. If some people in the civil aviation authority are creating issues for whatever personal interest they are seeking or personal interests of some local third parties they are defending, isn't it possible to consider another channel? Can't Davignon help renegotiate the bi-lateral with the RDC, to include temporary renewable 7th freedom rights to operate domestic charter flights in Congo.
Once they are flying, who's to stop them?

I think that Korongo should fly. For the sake of SN and the Congolese people.
Are they really doing whatever it takes?

[b.lufthansa]

Nice blog on how staff thinks about Korongo: http://aclvb-cgslb.blogspot.com/2011/10 ... frica.html

[Boeing767copilot]

Ther is a lot of new information about the Korongo-project in Flemish newspaper 'De Tijd' from last saturday.

[cathay belgium]

Hi Boeing767copilot,

Can you give a summary of it as I guess not many people here read 'detijd' ?
THX..
Or a scan

CX-B

[RoMax]

Yes a summary would be very nice as indeed not so many people read DeTijd (I only check their website sometimes for news about SN/BRU/... as this is often better than an article on HLN.be for exemple ).

[Air Key West]

Couldn't find any article on Korongo on the online version of De Tijd. Otherwise, I would have helped out.

As to the question of the Belgian liberal unions why the shareholders are still allowing this (Korongo and waste of money) to go on, well my guess is that the answer is probably that the shareholders or some (most of them ?) are friends of George Forrest's.

[Boeing767copilot]

source: De Tijd
Google translate:

Belgian aviation groups clash in Congo


In August there was in the offices of the Congolese carrier Korongo finally shout hooray. The daughter of Brussels Airlines, would soon be the first domestic flight between Kinshasa and Lubumbashi make. The new company had a license and operating license, it was only waiting for a nod of approval from President Joseph Kabila.
But it did nod off. Eighteen years after its creation will Korongo (Swahili for crown crane, red) still do not have permission to Congo Belgian aircraft to fly. And the question is why exactly? For Korongo has potential advantages. Thus, the airline aircraft that meet the highest safety standards, a Boeing 737-300 and two BAe-146's, all three from the fleet of Brussels Airlines. A relief amid the Congolese rivals in Europe for safety reasons not even allowed to fly.
Korongo also had good yarn spinning to the setback of his greatest rival Congolese, Hewa Bora (Swahili for Fresh Air, ed.) The fly Congolese carrier licensed by it was withdrawn after one of its aircraft on July 8 at the airport of Kisangani had crashed. That killed 127 people died. Yet another accident that even the Congolese government was too much. Any outsider would think that would play into the hands Korongo.
Not so. Insiders whisper that Kabila has been reluctant to give final blessing Korongo.
Forrest
"Brussels Airlines teamed up with the wrong partner, so it sounds in the Congolese capital. And the wrong partner George Forrest. With Brussels Airlines Forrest owns 70 percent of Korongo.
And that Forrest has verkorven with Kabila, the rumor goes. The occasion was a dispute over mining concessions in Katanga. According to Forrest, his group unduly by the Congolese government forced a 60 percent share in my CMSK cobalt (Compagnie Minière du Sud Katanga) to get rid of.
Forrest refuses to resign and thereby put the dispute with the Congolese state mining company Gecamines for an arbitration in Paris. Strategically wrong move because Kabila therefore suffers loss of face abroad. The president who does not appreciate it demarche.
Moreover, Hewa Bora restart operations soon. And while the investigation into the crash has not even completed.
Entourage
The explanation for this remarkable turn could well be the Belgian businessman Philippe De Moerloose can lie. He has close links with Kabila's entourage, and he confirms that in the final phase is to fully adopt Hewa Bora. "I will Hewa Bora restructure and ensure that it meets international standards," says De Moerloose.
The Belgian businessman confirms that Hewa Bora shortly flights from Kinshasa to Goma, Kisangani, Johannesburg and other cities will resume. And, importantly, also to Lubumbashi, the spearhead in the strategy of competitor Korongo.
In Congo, De Moerloose not unknown. He has been active since 1991, including as owner of Demimpex, Europe's largest exporter of 4x4 vehicles to Africa. Meanwhile, his group also distributes the car manufacturers Nissan, Volvo and Ford.
Moerloose is also the exclusive representative in Congo, the American John Deere, one of the world's largest manufacturers of agricultural machinery. And what's more: The Moerloose joined Kabila last year when a pair of John Deere factories in the U.S. visited.
In their own words, the Belgian businessman running a turnover of 400 million euros alone with the distribution of vehicles, tractors and construction equipment.
As an exporter of vehicles and machines he has regular contact with the Congolese Ministries of Agriculture and Infrastructure.
Grand Hotel
And that's not all. The property as a hotel in Lubumbashi Moerloose and his own half of the Grand Hotel in Kinshasa. That is except for the Memling, the former Sabena hotel, almost the only hotel in the capital that meets the standards of western comfort. Last week there was a two-day conference for the mining site. Coincidence or not, the only other shareholder in the Grand Hotel, the Congolese state.
Finally encounter the name of De Moerloose and over again in illicit transfers of military equipment in the war-ravaged region. "These allegations are groundless', says the businessman. So he put us a document showing that the planes of Hewa Bora in 2008 by the Congolese Ministry of Defence were requisitioned. "What goods are then transported, so I can not control," says De Moerloose.
In any case, it is clear that the Belgian businessman along more than one channel directly connecting lines with the highest echelons of the Congolese power.
Brussels Airlines
Observers fear that this Korongo acid can break. The new airline invested with Forrest now 6 million euros in the project and that a budget of 11.5 million euros, as can be heard at Brussels Airlines. Of the 200 employees is about half for a while unemployed.
According to the Belgian airline Hewa Bora and Korongo can easily coexist in the Congo. 'The market is large enough, we ask only that everyone has the same rules', it sounds. Also according to the Moerloose is for both airlines place among the Congolese Sun
Spicy detail: In 2007, Brussels Airlines and De Moerloose together about starting an airline in Congo. Due to disagreement between the future partners there was nothing in the house. Since then, there stretched a detente between the camp and the tandem Moerloose Brussels Airlines / George Forrest.
Korongo wondering if its wings in the fresh air will be swinging Congolese.

[Didymus]

"And that Forrest has verkorven with Kabila, the rumor goes."

[DeltaWiskey]

@boeing767copilot, what is you source (link?)? thanks

[andorra-airport]

@boeing767copilot, what is you source (link?)? thanks

You can see the article online, but not in detail. You need to pay to get a readable pdf. I guess he is a subscriber.

( http://krant.tijd.be/ page 22)