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| Founded | 15 December 2009 | |||
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Hubs | Lubumbashi International Airport | |||
| Fleet size | 3 (planned) | |||
| Destinations | ||||
| Parent company | Brussels Airlines (35.35%), Forrest Group (34.65%), Local DRC investors (30,00%) | |||
| Headquarters | Lubumbashi, Democratic Republic of the Congo | |||
| Key people | Christophe Allard (managing director)[1] | |||
| Website | flykorongo.com | |||
Korongo Airlines (after the Swahili term for large black birds),[2] is a proposed airline, which will be based at Lubumbashi, Democratic Republic of the Congo, operating scheduled regional passenger flights. The airline project is a joint-venture between Brussels Airlines and the Belgian multinational Groupe George Forrest International, with full support from Brussels Airlines' parent company Lufthansa.
The first revenue flight should be from Lubumbashi to Kinshasa. However, it is yet unclear when this may be expected.[3]
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The efforts of Brussels Airlines to create a subsidiary in the DR Congo, a former Belgian colony, date back to October 2007, when a cooperation with Hewa Bora Airways was announced, which resulted in the establishing of airDC (the name derived from the French pronunciation of RDC, the abbreviation for DR Congo) as a joint-venture.[4] The newly formed airline was planned to launch commercial flights out of N'djili Airport during 2008.[5] The date was later postponed indefinitely.
On 15 December 2009, Brussels Airlines declared the discontinuation of the airDC project, and the launch of Korongo Airlines as a sequel, with an initial funding of 10 million Euros.[6][7] Korongo Airlines will be owned to 70 percent by a holding company (which in turn is owned to 50,5% by Brussels Airlines and to 49,5% by George Forrest International), with the remaining 30% being in the hands of Congolese investors. On 13 April 2010, the company was officially registered.
Since early 2011 around 90 well trained people of Korongo Airlines are waiting to start working for the airline in Lubumbashi. As from June 2011 the aircraft are ready, the maintenance hangar is finished and approved by the local authorities. Korongo Airlines is now awaiting final approval from the Congolese authorities, who are still reluctant as it would force many local competitors to heavy investments which they can't afford. [8] Brussels Airlines and Lufthansa are maintaining their support for the project, although some rumors are indicating that an investment in RwandAir could easily replace the Korongo project, taking into account that the former has already started operations and is searching a healthy European support in order to continue to finance its operations. Such a project would speed up Brussels Airlines expansion in Africa, and at the same time save money.
On October 28, 2011 it was unofficially announced that Korongo Airlines would cease all operations in the next couple of weeks due problems with the Congolese authorities. Even though Korongo Airlines has everything in order to start operations, including all necessary papers, it was became clear that the Congolese authorities wouldn't allow Korongo Airlines to operate in the DRC. Since no progress had been made in the negotiations the owners decided not to invest further in the company and choose to close the company in the next couple of weeks. A dispute between the Forrest Group and the Congolese government is likely the main reason of the failure of the company. Besides the dispute the government wasn't eager to let a foreign company (even with a Congolese AOC) which would be 100% IOASA compliant and overseen by the Belgian Aviation Authorities operate in their country because this would mean that other DRC airlines would have to invest large amounts of money to follow the safety standards set by Korongo Airlines.
On November 2nd, an article in the Belgian Newspaper "Gazet Van Antwerpen" mentioned that the project wouldn't be cancelled and it is still active. All parties are still interested to start this airline however they agree that the project suffered some delays.
The Korongo Airlines fleet will consist of the following used aircraft handed over by Brussels Airlines, which had originally been planned to form the airDC fleet:[9]
| Aircraft | Total | Registration | Passengers (Business/Economy) |
|---|---|---|---|
| Boeing 737-300 |
|
|
126 (12/114) |
| British Aerospace 146-200 |
|
|
82 (0/82) |
The Boeing 737 and one of the BAe 146s (OO-MJE) are already painted in the Korongo colours, but still flying for Brussels Airlines. The other BAe 146 (OO-DJJ) is idle at Brussels Airport in the colours of airDC.
The maintenance for Korongo Airlines will be executed by Brussels Airlines, because the European Union decided to impose a ban on all airlines with technical support from the DR Congo. Consequently, Brussels Airlines confirmed in July 2010 the signing of a contract with George Forrest to build a maintenance hangar at Lubumbashi International Airport. On 20 April 2011, Korongo Airlines was indeed added to the EU blacklist.[10]