Korongo Airlines: THE END

[kilobravo243]

Let me put a different perspective on this. Too easy to blame a country political or financial situation or say a country is not suitable for this type of business. Korongo is mostly responsible of its own demise. Bad strategy, lack of investment have essentially hurt the company. They choosed FBM as their base intead of FIH out of the Forrest personal ego. Korongo has been a disappointment compared to the expectation (people even joking that bringing a 20-year old plane was not a good sign). Yes they promised safety and high standard, and they delivered on that, but aside of that they have remained a single plane company, limited to 3-4 cities. Even at the time Ethiopian started flying in Goma, Korongo has considered that airport as unsafe.

Korongo has started this project when DRC had no plan for a national airline, By the time they realized Congo Airways was coming, they so desperately tried to have the DRC gov partner with Korongo instead of starting an airline from scratch. Congo Airline has the ambition to go international, while Korongo was limited to national/regional airliner. DRC had the right to choose the partner of its choice, and had no obligation to go with Korongo; Air France appeared to be the better choice for the gov. The birth of Congo Airways did put a nail in the coffin.

How you expect a cash-crunched company like Brussel Airlines (which itself depends on Luftansa) to be selected in a venture like Congo Airlines, when they havent been able to develop and invest in Korongo . Yes there are financial constraints, infrastructure and operation costs, but company like CAA, controlled by some belgians that has been thriving, despite its quality issue, and was able to carry close to 400,000 passengers last year. Sorry for Korongo and its employees, but they have to take responsibility of their poor decision. By the way, Stavros Papionanou the former CEO of the defunct Hewa Bora, predicted in 2012 that the Korongo project was doomed to fail. He alsmost made an alliance with Brussel Airlines in 2009 to create Air-DC, only to see the project collapse, accusing the belgians of wanting to take control of top management positions.

As a congolese, I can only wish good luck to Congo Airways, though things dont look good for now and it will be great to have a real partner that can invest money, not just say they have the expertise and management skills.

[jan_olieslagers]

Just one thought: if SN was too short of cash to make the required investments, how will AF do better?
I am afraid that anyone, airline or not, who does have solid money to invest will find better use for it than to fund an airline in that part of the world, where many have failed and not a single one has achieved long-term success.

[RoMax]

As a congolese, I can only wish good luck to Congo Airways, though things dont look good for now and it will be great to have a real partner that can invest money, not just say they have the expertise and management skills.

Maybe you should also think of the reasons why major foreign companies are not that willing to invest loads of money in a new carrier in the DRC...that brings you exactly to the reasons why Korongo failed to do so.

Don't use CAA or a person like Stavros Papionanou as examples either...much of what they do would be completely unacceptable in Europe and that was another problem of Korongo, they tried to work on EASA standards for flight operations in one of the worst countries in the world when it comes to aviation safety and procedures etc.

Look at how ECair is doing in right next door, maybe that should be an example for the DRC, but they have a very long way to go before they get there and even Congo Brazzaville has lots of work to do before they can claim a well established and safe air transport environment.

[Established02]

10/09/2015 OO-LTM

[Passenger]

Korongo has started this project when DRC had no plan for a national airline, By the time they realized Congo Airways was coming, they so desperately tried to have the DRC gov partner with Korongo instead of starting an airline from scratch. Congo Airline has the ambition to go international, while Korongo was limited to national/regional airliner. DRC had the right to choose the partner of its choice, and had no obligation to go with Korongo; Air France appeared to be the better choice for the gov. The birth of Congo Airways did put a nail in the coffin.

I agree with you on this - partially though: not the fact that Congo Airways has started is the nail in the coffin, but the way that Congo Airways gets the support from the government and the Civil Aviation Authority is. If the runway damage with OO-LTM wouldn't have happened, Korongo Airlines would now consider stepping out because of unfair government interference.

Government interference started with the official ban to Ethiopian Airlines to start up Addis Abeba-Goma, a routing ment to avoid a stopover at Kinshasa and an add-on Kinshasa-Goma (read: Congo Airways). The day after the initial ET flight, the DRC's CAA ruled that the Goma runway is too dangerous for an Ethopian Dash-8. Strangely enough, the CAA considered Goma's runway safe enough for Congolese A320's - see:
https://www.aviation24.be/forums/viewtopic ... 27#p320370

Then, there was the overall rate reduction of 30%, ordered by the government and limiting the revenue for all airlines - see this article (too long for a resume):
http://www.business-et-finances.com/le- ... sse-de-30/

And on 1st September, the government has given Congo Airways a series of financial advantages towards its competition. The official Tariff Commission granted Congo Airways a waiver of VAT and all fees, duties & charges for aircraft, spare parts and other related equipment - see:
http://drcongoairline.blogspot.be/2015/ ... ciera.html

One can understand and accept that a state airline has the advantage of unlimited financial sources (example allowing them to buy two nice A320's). But when the government abuses other state services to suppress competition, there is no way a private airline can survive.

[sn26567]

One can understand and accept that a state airline has the advantage of unlimited financial sources (example allowing them to buy two nice A320's). But when the government abuses other state services to suppress competition, there is no way a private airline can survive.

Since the Congolese government interfered heavily to support its national airline and tried by different ways to eliminate any competition, the Belgian diplomacy should also have intervened by loudly protesting at the Congolese Government. After all, the D R Congo still depends a lot on Belgian assistance, which is an effective mean of pressure.

[White Light]

After all, the D R Congo still depends a lot on Belgian assistance, which is an effective mean of pressure.

With all due respect, André, this might be true with some countries, but it is totally wrong when it comes to the DRC whose leaders have always done what they wanted and Belgian diplomacy has always been silent or lenient, except perhaps for Karel De Gucht when he was foreign minister, who was criticised for not being diplomatic enough towards the RDC.
It was equally wrong for SN, a cash-strapped airline, to go into high risk-investment. I wonder if they will ever dare say how much this insane project has cost them in terms of losses, money that could have been much better spent on developping SN's ops from BRU.

[brusselsairlinesfan]

Dear all,

Here is a link to an article by lalibre.be :

http://www.lalibre.be/economie/actualit ... f19ec494b7

Couldn't read it, as I am not "abonné"... so I don't know wether the article is relevant or not...

[kilobravo243]

Government interference started with the official ban to Ethiopian Airlines to start up Addis Abeba-Goma, a routing ment to avoid a stopover at Kinshasa and an add-on Kinshasa-Goma (read: Congo Airways). The day after the initial ET flight, the DRC's CAA ruled that the Goma runway is too dangerous for an Ethopian Dash-8. Strangely enough, the CAA considered Goma's runway safe enough for Congolese A320's - see:
https://www.aviation24.be/forums/viewtopic ... 27#p320370

1. True. But everything went back to normal and Ethiopian had resumed flight to Goma. Doesnt affect Korongo since they considered this airport not to be safe. Go wonder why???

Then, there was the overall rate reduction of 30%, ordered by the government and limiting the revenue for all airlines - see this article (too long for a resume):
http://www.business-et-finances.com/le- ... sse-de-30/

2. Rate reduction was justified since arilines have abused the population with their excessive price. Makes no sense for a 2.5 hour flight between Kin and Lubum to be more expensive than a 7 hours flight between Kin and Brussel. If that was in Belgium, i bet you passengers would have gone on strike.

And on 1st September, the government has given Congo Airways a series of financial advantages towards its competition. The official Tariff Commission granted Congo Airways a waiver of VAT and all fees, duties & charges for aircraft, spare parts and other related equipment - see:
http://drcongoairline.blogspot.be/2015/ ... ciera.html

3. May sound unfair to you but the gvt can provide some sort of subsidies and tax break to help a national company or even a foreign one. Mining companies benefit heavily from gvt tax break and that doesnt bother many people. And a new airline needs state help to develop itself. Subsidy can take different forms: cash injection, tax break or other duty fees. African airlines flying to France and Brussels or Europe have been complaining for years of unfair treatment they receive from european regulation authorities under false pretext of safety measures.. Conditions are not perfect in the DRC but Korongo with the backing of Brussel Airlines had all the chances to thrive but they failed to do so. As their personnal communique said it, the damage to the plane was the event that precipitated the liquidation of the company, which was already in dire conditions.

Last thing, about a couple of years, the DRC gov granted Belgium traffic rights on a daily basis to fly to Kinshasa (7 days a week) instead of the 5 days they initially had, against the will of most congolese experts. In return, the belgian civial aviation authorities were to help the congolese authorities improve the safety of the sector and eventually help the DRC be removed from the european no-fly zone. Guess what, this agreement again came up short.

Let's see what the future has for us and I believe there are still ways that Congo Airways can cooperate more efficiently with Brussel Airlines.

[OO-ITR]

Let's see what the future has for us and I believe there are still ways that Congo Airways can cooperate more efficiently with Brussel Airlines.

That is if Congo Airways will start flying one day...

[airazurxtror]

Following the request of the lawyers of the Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC), the Irish Justice ordered the freehand on the Airbus A320 Congo Airways, which was impounded at Dublin since one month.

http://www.air-cosmos.com/congo-airways ... a320-43647

http://www.radiookapi.net/2015/09/23/ac ... go-airways

[Flanker2]

3. May sound unfair to you but the gvt can provide some sort of subsidies and tax break to help a national company or even a foreign one. Mining companies benefit heavily from gvt tax break and that doesnt bother many people. And a new airline needs state help to develop itself. Subsidy can take different forms: cash injection, tax break or other duty fees. African airlines flying to France and Brussels or Europe have been complaining for years of unfair treatment they receive from european regulation authorities under false pretext of safety measures.. Conditions are not perfect in the DRC but Korongo with the backing of Brussel Airlines had all the chances to thrive but they failed to do so. As their personnal communique said it, the damage to the plane was the event that precipitated the liquidation of the company, which was already in dire conditions.

I'm going to back you up on this one. In the EU, airlines are exempted from VAT on those items as well. So it's pretty standard practice in the industry.

I also back you up on that Korongo failed because it wasn't given a fair chance to thrive by its stakeholders, by lack of investment and strategic mistakes such as the base in FBM. The harsh political environment in the DRC was a given from the beginning, they knew what they were getting into.

Last thing, about a couple of years, the DRC gov granted Belgium traffic rights on a daily basis to fly to Kinshasa (7 days a week) instead of the 5 days they initially had, against the will of most congolese experts. In return, the belgian civial aviation authorities were to help the congolese authorities improve the safety of the sector and eventually help the DRC be removed from the european no-fly zone. Guess what, this agreement again came up short.

Whatever happened to that agreement?

[Passenger]

I'm going to back you up on this one. In the EU, airlines are exempted from VAT on those items as well. So it's pretty standard practice in the industry.

Who says VAT? The government gives Congo Airways exemption for VAT ànd taxes, ànd levies ànd import duties.

I also back you up on that Korongo failed because it wasn't given a fair chance to thrive by its stakeholders, by lack of investment and strategic mistakes such as the base in FBM.

Lack of investment? Tell us how much money Brussels Airlines has invested in Korongo and how much money they had to invest further then ("how much money" = give the amount please).

Last thing, about a couple of years, the DRC gov granted Belgium traffic rights on a daily basis to fly to Kinshasa (7 days a week) instead of the 5 days they initially had, against the will of most congolese experts. In return, the belgian civial aviation authorities were to help the congolese authorities improve the safety of the sector and eventually help the DRC be removed from the european no-fly zone. Guess what, this agreement again came up short.

Whatever happened to that agreement?

What agreement: that Belgium would put pressure on EASA to remove D.R. Congo from the EU blacklist? Can we remain a bit serious please. There was probably a promise that Belgium's CAA would help their Congolese counterpart to improve standards. But if so, it was a commitment promise, not a result promise to get them white listed. I have checked the latest ICAO Safety Audit figures and they show exactly what the problem is: it's not something that Belgium can resolve:

Legislation
55,00% D.R. Congo
66,36% World average
82,61% Belgium
Organization
44,44% D.R. Congo
64,44% World average
80,00% Belgium
Licensing
25,00% D.R. Congo
71,90% World average
92,41% Belgium
Operations
12,30% D.R. Congo
66,02% World average
87,10% Belgium
Airworthiness
43,64% D.R. Congo
74,04% World average
89,51% Belgium
Accident Investigation
22,22% D.R. Congo
54,74% World average
88,30% Belgium
Air Navigation Services
36,65% D.R. Congo
57,27% World average
76,29% Belgium
Aerodromes
11,35% D.R. Congo
58,11% World average
89,61% Belgium

To get off the EU blacklist, huge investments are needed into safety. But the government doesn't: they invest in an airline and in two nice aircraft. No problem with that, but then let us not blame Belgium that D.R. Congo will remain blacklisted for the next twenty years at least.

[b-west]

The 737 has now been pulled to the LH technics hangar, with titles removed.

[kilobravo243]

In an interview with Jeune Afrique, Korongo former CEO is Christophe Allard is putting the blame for the demise of his company solely on the DRC government. This can be summed up as follows:

1. Difficult negociations with the gov on improvement of airport infrastructures at Goma and Kisangani airports.
2. The refusal of the DRC gov the grant Korongo tax break of aircraft lease
3. The refusal of the gov to grant the company additional traffic rights on international routes as the DRC gov was preparing to launch Congo Airways.
4. DRC gov rejected on multiple occasions pariticipation of Korongo in the creation of Congo Airways

As they have mentioned before, Brussel Airlines is still interested in a close cooperation with Congo Airways.

Full text can be read here:
http://www.jeuneafrique.com/mag/265722/ ... -airlines/

[Predixs]

The 737 has now been pulled to the LH technics hangar, with titles removed.

It was standing in front of the SN hangar today.

[Bralo20]

Engines removed, ready to be scrapped on site?

[Airbus A330]

Engines removed, ready to be scrapped on site?

I think there are some other parts which can be removed and sold before scrapping...

[Bralo20]

Parting out then

[KriVa]

Earlier today it was in front of the LH Technik hangar again.