Air Zaïre Air Zaïre Air Zaïre was the national airline of Zaire. Its head office was located on the grounds of N'djili Airport in Kinshasa. "Air Congo" was originally formed in June 1961 as the national airline of the Congolese Republic, with Sabena providing both technical assistance and equipment. Initially, the Congo government had a 65% participation in the airline, Sabena had a 30% holding, and Air Brousse and Sobelair held the balance. Services to Belgium were inaugurated in early 1963, linking Léopoldville with Brussels via Rome, using Boeing 707 equipment operated by Sabena on behalf of the carrier. By 1964 the
Alcazar (airline) States started negotiating open skies agreements with the European Union (EU), which would allow any European airline to fly from any airport in their home country to any airport in the US, and similarly any US airline to fly from any US airport to any European airport. In the 1980s, SAS, Swissair, Austrian Airlines and Finnair had attempted to establish European Quality Alliance (EQA). In addition to codesharing and joint marketing, the alliance was largely based around technical issues and using the EQA brand as a "seal of quality". These had largely stranded because Finnair felt that SAS goal was