On Saturday 12 February it has been exactly eighty years ago since Edmond Thieffry flew for the first time from Brussels to Congo…
On Saturday 12 February it has been exactly eighty years ago since Edmond Thieffry flew for the first time from Brussels to Congo. In that time Thieffry travelled 51 days before reaching the African country, today the Airbus 330-300 of SN Brussels Airlines connects the European capital in less than 8 hours with Kinshasa.
A subway station at line 1 A between Merode and Petillon, a modest monument and a street name: this is about everything that reminds of Edmond Thieffry in Belgium.
On Saturday 12 of February has been exactly 80 years ago since the airline pioneer began the adventure that would reach the history books and the world press.
In the early morning of 12 February 1925 navigator Edmond Thieffry, master engineer Jef de Bruycker and pilot Leopold Roger leave from Haren nearby Zaventem with Congo as their destination. The Handley Page, that weighs 6 tons, has an 8.124-kilometer distance ahead. The journey will lead them via Marseille, Oran, Colomb-Bechar, Gao, Fort-Lamy, Bangui, and Coquilhat Ville to Congo.
Only 51 days later, with 75 hours of flight on the meter, the Handley Page lands at the N’Dola airport, in the heart of Lepoldville (today: Kinshasa). A remarkable adventure that immediately showed that it was too early to organize regular services between Brussels and Congo. The regular service did not start before 23 February ’35, almost 70 years ago.
Today SN Brussels Airlines connects the European capital 5 times a week with Kinshasa. While it took Thieffry 51 days to reach the country, the modern Airbus 330-300 is able to arrive in Kinshasa in less than 8 hours. On board a mix of passengers (Belgians, the Congolese people, Europeans, expats, clerks, diplomats, business people, families…) and more than 4 ton cargo freight (food, machine parts, hotel catering…).
Last year SN welcomed more than 50.000 people on the service. The number of passengers is increasing. Thanks to these results, SN Brussels Airlines is by far the largest long haul operator in Kinshasa.
“Our flight operation is possible thanks to more than 130 people who work in sales, our handling activity, our own catering company and our own maintenance company”, explains Country Manager R.D. Congo Chris Hermans.
“We are also very active in the social and cultural life in Kinshasa. For example: the aircraft crew of SN has just voluntarily repaired an orphanage, we have organized a toys action during the Christmas period an we also support a number of other initiatives, like the production of the music CD “Kinshasa Na Kati Y’ Africa” sung by “Les Enchanteurs” street children. Last but not least, we actively help UNICEF and the NGO “Espoir de Vie” who brings children to Belgium that must undergo a heart surgery. To put it short, 80 years after pioneer Thieffry, Belgian aviation is still clearly present in the Congolese life.”
Theodore is the Co-Founder and Managing Editor of TravelDailyNews Media Network; his responsibilities include business development and planning for TravelDailyNews long-term opportunities.
