Korongo Airlines: THE END

[RoMax]

Any idea when the ticketing will start? Maybe end of January?
Don't know if Korongo Airlines is still on shedule to start operations in Q1 2011...

I don't think Korongo will start selling tickets long before they start operations. So I don't expect they will start ticketing end of January. But as far as I know they still plan to start operations in the comming months.

[tolipanebas]

Given there's no real rush (to say the leasts ) amongst the pilot community at Brussels Airlines to be based in FBM, SN has been seaking contractors for both the Boeing 737-3OOw as well as the 2 BAe146-200 for Korongo since some time now...

http://www.contractair.co.uk/public/vac ... ancyId=304

http://www.contractair.co.uk/public/vac ... ancyId=303

[Shanti]

what about cabin crew?

[sn26567]

Given there's no real rush amongst the pilot community at Brussels Airlines to be based in FBM

Doesn't SN give a sizeable expatriation premium for intercontinental relocations? That should be cheaper than a contractor...

[Crosswind]

Given there's no real rush amongst the pilot community at Brussels Airlines to be based in FBM

Doesn't SN give a sizeable expatriation premium for intercontinental relocations? That should be cheaper than a contractor...

No. Only peanuts...

Initially, they asked us to go there for 3 months (!)... Now it's planned to go for only one (there is therefore many more candidates, what a surprise).

About money, the gross salary doesn't change. The increase is sone via perdiem. Something like a double per diem (not even, but...).

When you see the cost of living (VERY expensive, and you must cook your popote yourself each day), the difficulties of the operations, and the living area (there is nothing to do in Katanga, and I know the place quite well), it's not difficult to understand why they find so few volunteers...

[tolipanebas]

Given there's no real rush amongst the pilot community at Brussels Airlines to be based in FBM

Doesn't SN give a sizeable expatriation premium for intercontinental relocations? That should be cheaper than a contractor...

.

I don't know how familiar you are with the average income of expat pilots, so I will not talk money in detail here, but as others have mentioned in the mean time, SN doesn't offer any extra salary at all, they want to settle everything via a relatively modest allowance increase (i.e. almost double per diems) of which it is highly questionable if it will even suffice to cover the extremely high cost of expat living in Lubumbashi.

Not to mention there's no talk of industry standard generosities for expats like a free personal car on location, full-time household help, family reunification on request, tuition fees for any of your kids joining you, increased life insurances and additional mortage guarantees (Eastern RDC is a high risk area) etc...

Other than elementary housing accommodation, they offer basically nothing, so no wonder hardly anybody in his right mind is interested in going to FBM.

[airtrotter]

When you see the cost of living (VERY expensive...

the extremely high cost of expat living in Lubumbashi.

I probably don't get it, but what could possibly be very expensive in Lubumbashi????
please, enlighten me, cause I would believe otherwise.

[Crosswind]

Everything is imported, and since there isn't efficient logistic in the country (you can add to the list: corrupted officers), a single pizza can cost as much as 50 euros... Meat, vegetables, all the same prices...

with 130 euros per day, you go there for free...

[tolipanebas]

I probably don't get it, but what could possibly be very expensive in Lubumbashi????
please, enlighten me, cause I would believe otherwise.

Have you considered everything needs to be imported from thousands of miles away, from the most elementary thing like just a bottle of coke light, to the more sophisticated consumer goods like printer cartridges?

Given the complete lack of road infrastructure in the RDC, this means much of all that must be flown in and hence you pay the price for it; already Kinshasa is a very expensive city to live in if you want to live to European standards, and the deeper you go inland, the more expensive it becomes. You might as well consider Lubumbashi a moonbasis for Belgians, really.

For reference: going out for diner (just a pizza and a glass of red wine that is) in one of the few acceptable italian restaurants in Kinshasa for instance will cost you about 50 euro and that is WITHOUT the taxi taking you back to your safehaven afterwards. And FBM is almost twice as expensive!

Obviously, if you don't mind living like the locals do, you'll be off much cheaper, but then you need to content yourself with quite harsh living conditions, a poor quality of goods, permanent food shortages and obviously spend hours at the local markets, without guarantee you'll make it back home safely and with all your goods afterwards.

Seriously, what they offer per month, they should offer per week, and then it's a good offer. Now it's just ridiculous, hence almost nobody taking it. If anybody goes there, it is to work professionally and to have a quality of live similar to here in Belgium while making some extra money from it, otherwise why bother right? However, now it looks like an NGO project however, with volunteers asked to take up high risk assignments they aren't paid for, living the rough life as locals and not caring about their own safety and wellbeing, all for the greater good of the project....

[kookongsi]

Another good reason to have a direct flight BRU-FBM: lots of cargo needed there, so it can't be that difficult to make the flight profitable.

[Air Key West]

I cannot refrain from repeating myself : when you see what b.air wants to offer its staff (inter alia pilots) that will work for them in FBM, it clearly shows again that b.air management don't know what they are doing and that they are a bunch of amateurs. It would be interesting to know what contract/free-lance pilots will ask and get.

[Kabila]

I cannot refrain from repeating myself : when you see what b.air wants to offer its staff (inter alia pilots) that will work for them in FBM, it clearly shows again that b.air management don't know what they are doing and that they are a bunch of amateurs. It would be interesting to know what contract/free-lance pilots will ask and get.

From first hand experience, I can only agree... a bunch of amateurs. Shame on them. Bound for failure. Within 24 months of first flight, they will no longer be. If they even last 24 months. I am willing to put money on it.

[sn26567]

Don't forget that in this venture SN is associated with the Forrest group: they know Africa, and especially the D R Congo better than anyone. Doesn't Forrest have anyone in the management of Korongo to guide their steps in the African jungle ?

[euroflyer]

I would expect in the long run they would like to operate with local or at least regional staff which of course needs to bre trained first. Therefore it might be a difficult balance they have to find. If they pay too much to the expats, salary level for local people might come under pressure as well and they have to pay for this in the future. On the other hand they need attractive packages for non-regional staff to go there for the initial phase of operatoins. This is not that easy to manage, not only in aviation, but in all business types. On top, if you pay expats 'too much' plus all the goodies mentioned here above as well you very often have problems of reintegrating them in the home operations once they come back from their 3 or 6 months or so abroad: you know, many people get used very fast to that free household staff, security staff, school fees being paid and so on: I have no clue about FBM in particular, but those things are always a problems with expats ...

[tolipanebas]

If you pay expats 'too much' plus all the goodies mentioned here above as well you very often have problems of reintegrating them in the home operations once they come back from their 3 or 6 months or so abroad: you know, many people get used very fast to that free household staff, security staff, school fees being paid and so on: I have no clue about FBM in particular, but those things are always a problem with expats ...

That's all very nice, but a guaranteed continuation of your personal life insurance coverage during your stay in the RDC, full foreign medical attention in SA (iso RDC) in case of illness and any other mean to guarantee personal safety and security under all possible circumstances really shouldn't be considered 'excessive gratitudes'; they should all be part of the most basic package, IMHO.

Nobody is going to risk his life and the financial wellbeing of his family at home in case something goes terribly wrong there, that much should be clear. I am not even talking about a fatal crash or being caught up in a genocide BTW; it could be as 'harmless' as suffering from an acute apendicitis or a tropical disease and the consequences from any maltreatment for instance....

[airtrotter]

@ Crosswind and Tolipanebas: thanks for the clarification.

but then again, who wants to eat pizza when you're in Congo?

[Air Key West]

Probably crocodile and snake are cheaper. Ever tried it, airtrotter ? (I did).

[cathay belgium]

Hi,

Another good reason to have a direct flight BRU-FBM: lots of cargo needed there, so it can't be that difficult to make the flight profitable.

Yeah right, but you forget one thing, the loads of cargo are needed but there must be cash before you're flying
it to there, and in AFI there's one lack ... yep,cash !!
No cash = not profitable are SN will indeed fly like an NGO.
Or there must some reason to fly the cash also to that place.. copperbosses?

Indeed expats live like kings but you must see the other side also.. danger (our para's-genocide ),diseases,education,hostile envirement.. not a place I would like to raise my kids ( voluntarely ).
So maybe the earn this treatment and wages..
( voor wat hoort wat .. )
AFI stays special..


Did SN management lost their AFI knowledge so soon ??

Probably crocodile and snake are cheaper. Ever tried it, airtrotter ? (I did).

I quite liked the crocodile ( chicken/fish mixture ).
Snake next time

But leaving in AFI for 3 months with maniok,crocodile,ape,banana,bush-beer and immodium ( imported )
you're be quite desperate to have a pizza,fritje,curryworst,big mac...
But I'm not so familiar with congo.

Is it safe for belgium-passportholders BTW ??
I know the Dutch travels / have tourism to their former colonies ( indonesia-South Africa-Suriname-Antillen )
but I never saw a tour to Congo with Jetair/TC/.. why is that ??

CX-B

[DeltaWiskey]

I know the Dutch travels / have tourism to their former colonies ( indonesia-South Africa-Suriname-Antillen )
but I never saw a tour to Congo with Jetair/TC/.. why is that ??

Dutch are going to Indonesia for the good weather and nice beaches, very few for the historical ties. Basicly the same reason why the Belgians go to Indonesia.
Between Suriname and Netherlands it is mainly VFR, little tourism.
The Dutch Antilles are still part of the Kingdom of the Netherlands, it's not a former colony.
I don't really know about South Africa, but it's certainly not that popular. I lived in Holland for some years, and very little people I know visited it, and it doesn't seem to be popular at all there.

Btw (and IIRC), originally the first 'Dutch' people colonizing South Africa were actually Flemish people (west-vlaamse boeren oid), as Flanders and the Netherlands were still together back then. So historically the roots of their african colonisation might me the same for Flemish as for Dutch people, but later on with VOC Kaapstad became very important.
Don't hit me when it's not 100% correct, I went to school in Belgium so I know far more about Congo than the Dutch colonization process...

[Desert Rat]

There's a lot of very good local pilots used to live in these difficult conditions, ex-Air Afrique or other african airlines...A lot of them are now flying in the middle east and are keen to come back to Africa!