Korongo Airlines: THE END

[skumfiduse]

Today OO-DJJ departed to Congo to join the Korongo-fleet

A second BAe146 that will sit idle most of the time?

Or is it a sign that the network will dramatically expand in the near future?

I agree with Tolipanebas!

If you'd expect their planes would have a Ryanair-working schedule, then your expectations are slightly too high. As long as they are able to fly those planes on time and at the service level they aim for, mission accomplished I would say. It's Africa after all...

Nevertheless, I look forward to see them grow – sustainable growth.

[Didymus]

I finally had some time to read that Korongo trip report and and now I have a question to those of you who can speak what I think is Swahili.

I noticed the Korongo inflight magazine is called Wageni: what does it mean?

You don't have to speak the language to be able to look it up in a dictionary...
It means visitors.

[RoMax]

Herman Carpentier (Africa sales chief at Brussels Airlines) said in Bloomberg that Korongo Airlines plans to expand to Mbuji-Mayi and Kolwezi in "the next year". I assume this summer (as previously communicated) was not possible, probably because of infrastructure or operating right problems and the fact that they don't want to start new routes in the winter season? Or has it some other reason (related to the operating results of Korongo itself?).

Carpentier also said that if the model proves to be succesfull it could be replicated in other African countries.

And not related to Korongo, but also about Africa:
New start-up carrier Gambia Bird will launch flights out of Banjul to numerous African destinations and to BCN and LGW and to LGW also out of Freetown (BJL-FNA and FNA-LGW pending on government approval). Flights will be operated by two A319's under ACMI lease from Germania.
This airline now says they are in talks with Brussels Airlines to establish a cooperation. They also aim to work together with other carriers for things like maintenance and they want to become a feeder airline for Asian carriers.

Except for Lagos, all planned destinations of Gambia Bird are served by SN itself. Tough operations may be on other days (so adding connection possibilities for SN pax), otherwise it's probably a 'way' to prevent a new carrier from starting to compete with SN on certain pax flows (in Africa and between Africa and Europe).

[jal]

Do they still have only one B737-300 ? And finally now two Bae146 ?

[webstermc]

I've seen that they removed the timetables from their website. As of now, you need to call them for obtaining the flights.

Does this mean something? Are they in trouble and reducing flights?

[Bralo20]

I've seen that they removed the timetables from their website. As of now, you need to call them for obtaining the flights.

Does this mean something? Are they in trouble and reducing flights?

The flights are still loaded (Amadeus timetable)

Edit: The schedules are loaded but KVS can't find any flight in Sabre... Quite strange...

[bruteboeing]

Flights are still ongoing and quite good i've heard. Loadfactor's aren't that bad apparently. OO-LTM is currently undergoing a maintenance check at this moment so maybe they downed capacity a little ??

[webstermc]

Now I've seen some better news on their website

They've now put the adress and phone numbers of 2 ticket offices of Mbuji-Mayi on the website

Avenue Inga N° 75: ........................... 097 100 03 50
Aéroport de Bipemba:.........................097 100 03 60

They also changed the banner (from 4 to 3). They are telling that the route to Mbuji-Mayi will start 'very soon'

They are not mentionning anything about Kolwezi. No adress or phone numbers of the ticketing office yet.

Looks like they will won't wait for the summer 2013 for starting up Mbuji-Mayi

[RoMax]

I've seen that they removed the timetables from their website. As of now, you need to call them for obtaining the flights.

Does this mean something? Are they in trouble and reducing flights?

It may have something to do with the fact that flight shedule changes quite frequently (due to aircraft maintenance, ...) making it difficult to give a fixed flight shedule on their website?
Just an idea tough.

[tolipanebas]

Korongo has published its revised flight schedule linking Mbuji-Mayi to both Kinshasa as well as Lubumbashi by having 2 of the 6 weekly flights between these 2 cities make a short stop in both directions (on Wednesday and Saturday).

http://flykorongo.com/destinations-horaires

Flights will start at the end of this month.

[Yuri166]

mje is in bru...

[RoMax]

In this way it's not a capacity increase, but that may have something to do with the winter season? I heard they didn't want to add too much capacity during the winter season, but only in summer 2013. Or has it something to do with the operating rights on these routes?

Anyway, will SN/Korongo also offer fast connections between Mbuji-Mayi and Brussels, through FIH (like they do 3(?) weekly with FBM)?

[sn26567]

Korongo Airlines Adds Mbuji Mayi Service in W12

Korongo Airlines from 31OCT12 is launching new service to Mbuji-Mayi, with two weekly flights from Kinshasa and Lubumbashi.

The airline’s Winter 2012/13 schedule as follows:

Kinshasa – Mbuji-Mayi NEW 2 weekly service

Code: Select all

ZC104 FIH1150 – 1430MJM 733 36
ZC103 MJM1010 – 1050FIH 733 36

Lubumbashi – Mbuji-Mayi NEW 2 weekly service

Code: Select all

ZC103 FBM0800 – 0925MJM 733 36
ZC104 MJM1515 – 1640FBM 733 36

Lubumbashi – Johannesburg Service operates 3 times a week

Code: Select all

ZC123 FBM0800 – 1035JNB 733 24
ZC123 FBM1510 – 1750JNB 733 7

ZC124 JNB1135 – 1410FBM 733 25
ZC124 JNB1850 – 2125FBM 733 7

Lubumbashi – Kinshasa Nonstop service reduced from 6 to 4 weekly

Code: Select all

ZC101 FBM0800 – 0925FIH 733 7
ZC105 FBM1710 – 1835FIH 733 125

ZC102 FIH1025 – 1355FBM 733 7
ZC106 FIH1935 – 2305FBM 733 125

Source: Airline Route

It appears that the BAe146s are no longer used. The reason for OO-MJE to be back in Brussels?

[cathay belgium]

Hi,

What an effort for so less months, new seats, new paint,...
How long will the 737's in service? one year?

If we read that the unions calculated a drop of three a319 s next summer,guess we know where the airbus will be flying ...

CXB

Hoping they are making money now.. out of this..

[airazurxtror]

It appears that the BAe146s are no longer used. The reason for OO-MJE to be back in Brussels?

OO-MJE was the one which carried the AvGeeks (first trip) to Prague in march 2011 - it did not stay long in Africa ... was it really worth all the trouble ?

[Flanker]

Well for starters, they are pieces of junk that cost a fortune to maintain.
Keeping an aircraft stored outside for years in humid Belgium does that to an airplane.

[Konus]

What will happen to OO-DJJ which is still in Africa ? Coming back to BRU also ?

[tolipanebas]

I think some people are quite confused as to the exact use and purpose of the BAe146 at Korongo: the BAe146 is planned to be used for REGIONAL flights and well as a back up plane, nothing more.

Until now, OO-MJE also had to be used on the night flights from FIH because legally a twin like the 737 isn't allowed to operate on just one engine for more than one hour in case of en route engine failure, yet MJM -which is the only suitable enroute alternate to the BCAA on the relatively long FIH-FBM route- wasn't acceptable as alternate after sunset, so this was solved by operating those flights with a quad like the BAe146. With MJM finally being brought up to standards, it is now possible to use the 737 on ALL of the FIH flights as planned and so the BAe146 simply reverts back to its original role of back up plane now, until Kolwesi will launch.

OO-MJE is currently back in BRU for some heavy maintenance, because contrary to the 737 this can not be done in Johannesburg: OO-DJJ was flown to FBM to replace MJE as back up plane precisely for this reason and so OO-MJE will go back to FBM after that.

Oerating at FBM as an EU-OPS opproved airline isn't like running some exotic Ryanair-base type of operations, it's running moon base operations almost.

[cathay belgium]

Hi,

Thx tolepanebas for some clarification..

On a fleet of 3,one back up plane .. luckily it's already paid then...
Still confusing that regarding SN operations over here.. Korongo will be succesful,meaning making money..
with all these heavy costs.. back-up plane, design and preparation of the four planes,maintenance in belgium,
guess fuel is the same price as here..
Tolepanebas.. in what time can we say the Korongo-project will be break even regarding investments and so on..
Guess this will be also playing a factor with the unions and the heavy questions of reduction flying time of 'our' pilots over here..
First I was a believer of the Korongo -project but getting questions about it for now..
They said loadfactors are well but are they making money out of it..
Will the public-us- or the people on the floor-you- ever see some numbers about it,or is this just big bosses info.. as for now.. the government -so us (..,or at least the Walloon government - who cares.. I know some government is shareholder .. ) will see some fact about it..

CX-B

[RoMax]

Cathay Belgium, don't want to defend this project too much. But did you already see ticket prices of Korongo? When they started they had a 'promotion' fare of what 399 or 499 euro, don't remember exactly, but the bottom line is the same, that's quite some money for a route FBM-FIH. You can fly from Europe to New York for such prices.
I assume Korongo doesn't need a loadfactor of let's say 70% to break-even on their flights.
Of course they have several other extra costs because of the operation in Congo, but still... The BAe aircraft are owned by SN, if they are grounded like they were since 2008 or flying back-up flights, that doesn't matter I would say.

Korongo CAN be a succesfull project, but of course on the operational side things are not that easy. Maybe exactly the oposite of SN's European situation. Europe is easy to operate on the operational side, but a disaster looking at the financial side. Congo can be a financial gold mine for SN/Korongo, but is operationally a very difficult market.