New bilateral agreement Belgium- DR Congo

[Vinnie-Winnie]

As far as I know, SN crew still stays at the Memling. Which, together with the hotel Royal near the presidential palace, is pretty much the only decent place to stay in Kinshasa. And their crew bus is indeed escorted by armoured guards. And quite necessary so.

Edit: I guess your google maps knowledge led you to the conclusion that the airport is a mere 4 blocks away from the Memling. But that's the local airport of N'dolo... SN flies to N'djili.

Well you maybe live in the virtual world.
4 blocks is just a figure of speech, it means that it's not far. If you take the outside road by the waters, it's a safe 10 minutes ride and no people blocking the road in the evening/night.

More recently SN crews have been staying in a compound outside the city, citing safety concerns with the unrests in the city (or maybe money saving measures). The escort, if that's what you want to call it.. It's not a bunch of elite soldiers or secret service guys. It's 1 or 2 "security" guys in a old Toyota truck with a few guns on them who show up when they feel like it. Probably paid through one of the bribe agreements.

Kin is bad? I'll take Kin over Borgerhout or Schaarbeek any time. Of course, anywhere you go, if you look like a rich tourist, waving around with your smile, your money, and your LV bags, bad things can happen.
If you want to be safe, stay home and do nothing.

You totally discredit yourself beyond belief! When one doesn't know, he asks or researches. He doesn't assume or invent like you do!

[Inquirer]

Up until now, Flanker, I didn't intervene much in discussions with you because my technical knowledge of aviation is limited at best. But now you've entered a field of which I'm more knowledgable, and I feel very confident in calling your statements absolute and total nonsense. 10 minutes to FIH from the Memling? By heli perhaps...

Had exactly the same encounter as you, sir.
When flanker2 accidentally stumbles into a field you happen to be active in yourself, it immediately becomes clear there's often not much substance to his claims: it's all just thin air, it seems. Don't take him too serious, would be my advice.

Btw- I remember reading once here Air France evacuates its crew to Brazzaville by private charter plane. Another proof of just how unsafe the situation is and what kind of unexpected costs there are linked to operating to a place like Kinshasa?

[HighInTheSky]

...More recently SN crews have been staying in a compound outside the city, citing safety concerns with the unrests in the city (or maybe money saving measures)...

That was December 2011, during the elections, so that's not 'recently'.

Also, if the ride is so smooth as you say, why are we chartering Air Tropique aircrafts so often to fly from N'dolo to N'djilli? Maybe to save money?

The quickest I ever got from N'djili to the hotel was 25mins, at 5AM, with absolutely nobody on the road and the driver doing 140 wherever he could... So, that 10mins travel time (or 4 blocks or whatever else you're willing to throw in): forget it.

[Flanker2]

...More recently SN crews have been staying in a compound outside the city, citing safety concerns with the unrests in the city (or maybe money saving measures)...

That was December 2011, during the elections, so that's not 'recently'.

Also, if the ride is so smooth as you say, why are we chartering Air Tropique aircrafts so often to fly from N'dolo to N'djilli? Maybe to save money?

The quickest I ever got from N'djili to the hotel was 25mins, at 5AM, with absolutely nobody on the road and the driver doing 140 wherever he could... So, that 10mins travel time (or 4 blocks or whatever else you're willing to throw in): forget it.

Air Tropique? I've never heard of that one before. Is SN making you fly on a blacklisted airline?
Not a very efficient way to do business

If you go near the waters, you avoid most of the traffic.
I've done that route many times, this is DRC, no radars, no traffic rules, no car insurance, nothing, you just step on it and zigzag between the cars.
Ok 10 minutes is a bit tight between getting out of the city and all if you're using a small bus, but in the evening just around dinner time, you can do less than 20 minutes.

If you don't know my background, it's better to not start bashing.
Tolipanebas and his bitter brothers or is he the same person using 5 aliasses?-- strike again.

JAF should hire Tolipanebas.
Tolipanebas knows better than JAF and if he says that JAF won't make money with lower fares in FIH, he's 100% right

A lot of bitterness from the SN camp with the newly formed competition.
Prepare the reanimation paddles for the next years. As new competitors will eat SN's African market piece by piece, Tolipanebas and his twin brother Inquirer are going to have heart attack frenzies.

Woulkdn't DKR be a nice destination for JAF?

[b-west]

Whatever, I could ask "what road by the river exactly? The one that takes you past the brewery? But I'lll try to be smarter and I'm gonna adhere to that golden rule of the Internet: don't feed the troll.

[Inquirer]

Also, if the ride is so smooth as you say, why are we chartering Air Tropique aircrafts so often to fly from N'dolo to N'djilli? Maybe to save money?

The quickest I ever got from N'djili to the hotel was 25mins, at 5AM, with absolutely nobody on the road and the driver doing 140 wherever he could... So, that 10mins travel time (or 4 blocks or whatever else you're willing to throw in): forget it.

Is that also the airline Air France uses to evacuate their crews to Brazzaville?

If you don't know my background, it's better to not start bashing.

Nobody is bashing you, sir.
BTW, you can easily remove all doubts on your background, not by long discussions which turn nasty as you accuse others of all sort of things, but by being more forthcoming about yourself really.
I have asked you already 9 times to tell us where you work or what you do so you can underpin your credibility somewhat as it is clearly in need of it.
Personally, I have been forthcoming about what I do for a living and so have others too: care to do the same?
Because let's he clear: the range of topics you comment on as if you are an absolute expert is so broadranged the only logical conclusion can be that you aren't such an expert on any of them at all.
As b-west -and I- have experienced, you definitely aren't very knowledgeable on those fields which we happen to know a bit off ourselves.
That's not bashing, that's just a factual observation of mine and b-west if I am allowed to say so on his behalf.
Thank you.

[tolipanebas]

I see the usual conversations have spun out again, thanks to mr flanker?
Let's just pick out the most brilliant line, so we can at least have a good laugh with it all, amid all the nonsense we have to read from him....

Tolipanebas, my friend. You're forgetting who you're talking to: the Memling hotel is 4 blocks from the airport

Is it, indeed?

I guess your google maps knowledge led you to the conclusion that the airport is a mere 4 blocks away from the Memling. But that's the local airport of N'dolo... SN flies to N'djili.

Alsmost wetting my pants as I re-read this brilliant piece of shakespearean comedy from last night and imagine the total confusion on the face of flanker2 as he goes back to Google again, zooms out and much to his disbelief finds yet another much bigger airport off the original scale of the map of Kinshasa.

But no worries, used to having to spin errors and mistakes around, he comes up with an -albeit cheap- twist...

4 blocks is just a figure of speech; it means that it's not far.

So just a figure of speech of yours it is...
Because in the end, we all know it really isn't far, right?

Then why are we chartering Air Tropique aircrafts so often to fly from N'dolo to N'djilli?

Euh...
Flying intercity within Kinshasa!
Shame the "expert" who maintains its not far from FIH to the Memling by inroads, didn't know of that little piece of invalidating evidence!
Aware he can't spin this one around, he changes to his usual tactic of attacking the people who post here...

Tolipanebas and his bitter brothers or is he the same person using 5 aliasses?

The irony is this comes from the person who has created more accounts than all of us together over the past few years because he managed to make a fool of himself each time and didn't want to be confronted with his past posts anylonger.

You can change your name a thousand times NCB, you still remain the same clown as before.
As they say in English: you can fool some people all the time, you can even fool all the people sometimes, but you can't fool all the people all the time.

Keep stiking, I'd say...
What a brilliant conversation, the above is.
Care to add a few more hilarious lines to it all with yet another one of your completely nonsensical replies while trying to correct your obvious mistakes from yesterday, stemming from the lack of real operational knowlegde on this matter? if it is of any comfort to you: it's a turboprop we fly from FIH to NLO, but no, it's no Q400.

[rwandan-flyer]

But meanwhile Korongo has upgraded the facilities to international standards.

Indeed, they have built new hangars.

[sn26567]

Thanks, Rwandan Flyer, for coming back to topic.