AirDC
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| Founded | 2009 | ||||||
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| Commenced operations | 2012 | ||||||
| Ceased operations | 4 September 2015 | ||||||
| Operating bases | Lubumbashi International Airport | ||||||
| Fleet size | 1 | ||||||
| Destinations | 4 | ||||||
| Company slogan | Vivez. Voyagez. Souriez. | ||||||
| Headquarters | Lubumbashi, Democratic Republic of the Congo | ||||||
| Key people | George Arthur Forrest, chairman | ||||||
| Website | flykorongo.com | ||||||
Korongo Airlines sprl (after the Swahili term for large migrating birds) was an airline from the Democratic Republic of the Congo (DR Congo), headquartered in Lubumbashi. It was founded on behalf of Brussels Airlines and other Belgian investors in 2009, and operated scheduled regional flights from its base at Lubumbashi International Airport.
On 4 September 2015 Korongo Airlines ceased all operations, because it did have enough reservations (despite a 70% load factor), and because of damage caused to the only airplane in the fleet a week earlier.
Brussels Airlines began trying to set up a regional airline in DR Congo in 2007. DR Congo used to be Belgian Congo and has strong business and political ties with Belgium. In that year, airDC was founded as a joint venture with Hewa Bora Airways, and the launch of commercial regional flights from Kinshasa-N'djili Airport using a fleet of BAe 146-200s handed over by Brussels Airlines was planned for early 2008. Concerns about the success of the project were voiced in 2008, when the disaster of Hewa Bora Airways Flight 122 revealed serious aviation safety flaws in the DR Congo. As a consequence, Hewa Bora was banned from operating within the European Union (any air carriers from the DR Congo had already been included in the EU blacklist since 2006 due to a lack or regulatory oversight in the country, but there had been an exception for Hewa Bora's Brussels service). The airDC project was postponed indefinitely and eventually abandoned.
A new attempt by Brussels Airlines to install a regional feeder service for its Brussels-Kinshasa flights was launched in 2009. In December of that year, Korongo Airlines was founded, with 70 percent of its shares being owned by Airbel, a Belgian holding company, which in turn is owned by Brussels Airlines (49.5 percent) and Forrest Group (50.5 percent). The remaining 30 percent in Korongo Airlines are owned by local Congolese investors.George Arthur Forrest, Belgian entrepreneur and owner of Forrest Groups, serves as the airline's chairman.
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