Delta Celebrates Five Years of African Flights

Posted 06/12/2011

Delta Air Lines has this past weekend (December 3/4) celebrated the fifth anniversary of the introduction of its flights to Africa from the USA.  The US major inaugurated services between the two continents on December 4, 2006 when it introduced a link from Atlanta to Johannesburg, South Africa, via Dakar, Senegal.  Just one week later it expanded its offering by serving Accra, Ghana, from its hub at New York JFK.  These flights marked the first non-stop scheduled connections to Africa by a US major since Pan American World Airways served the market in the 1980s.

"Five years ago, Delta saw an opportunity in Africa to offer our customers access to a region that had long been overlooked by U.S. carriers," said Glen Hauenstein, Delta's Executive Vice President – Network Planning, Revenue Management and Marketing.  "Today Africa has become a key part of our international network, and we're committed to continued long-term growth in the region."

Delta Air Lines now flies to six African cities in five countries and is the largest US carrier serving the continent.  In the past week it expanded its offering by introducing onward connections from Accra to the Nigerian city of Lagos on a twice weekly basis in partnership with Air Nigeria.  From 22 weekly rotations in December 2006, Delta now offers 44 flights per week and has handled more than 2.5 million passengers on its flights in and out of Africa during the past five years. 

"Despite our success in Africa, we're not standing still.  We continue to look for new opportunities to serve this fast-growing market, and I expect Africa to be an exciting part of Delta's long-term growth," added Perry Cantarutti, Delta's Senior Vice President for Europe, the Middle East and Africa.

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