DR Congo’s private airline, Korongo Airlines, financed by Brussels Airlines and the Belgian industrial group Forrest International (GFI), will take off on 16 April with domestic flights, a statement from the airline made available to the press on Wednesday said in Brussels.
The announcement followed a visit to the DR Congo capital, Kinshasa, since Monday by the Belgian Foreign Affairs minister, Didier Reynders.
He said one of the goals of the visit was “to unlock” the case Korongo Airlines, which had faced administrative problems for two years.
Kinshasa refused to grant the needed authorization for Korongo to begin its flights even though planes were available and staff had been recruited and trained.
Korongo Airlines, which has 200 employees, including 97% of Congolese, will begin its operations on the Kinshasa-Lubumbashi route before flying to other Congolese cities such as Bukavu, Kisangani and Mbuji Maji.
It is also expected that the company will later fly to destinations in the sub-region, particularly Luanda (Angola), Johannesburg (South Africa), Kigali (Rwanda) and Bujumbura (Burundi).
