Delta Airlines flight landing at Lindbergh Field, San Diego
One of the hassles for Americans visiting Africa has always been the lack of direct flights from the United States to the Mother Continent. Little by little, that’s starting to change. But real progress may depend on a balky new Boeing jet.
Delta Air Lines today began flying between a dozen U.S. cities and Monrovia, the capital of Liberia. It’s perhaps the clearest sign yet of that nation’s comeback following its two civil wars, the last of which ended but seven years ago.
Beyond that, it is a sign that, one link at a time, the air bridge between America and Africa is growing.
CONTINENT TO CONTINENT, COAST TO COAST
Delta’s air route to Liberia covers the entire continental United States, including both coasts — New York, Boston, Washington DC, Atlanta, Chicago, Los Angeles, San Francisco, Houston, Cincinnati, Minneapolis-St. Paul, Salt Lake City and Seattle.
(This actually could’ve started before now; Delta first applied for this route two years ago. But the federal government wouldn’t give its okay until the TSA was satisfied with Liberian airport security.)
This is a good thing. It could’ve been an even better thing had Delta not decided to play the usual airline games with the airfares. Their “introductory fares” for these flights range from $639 to $749. Sounds like a fantastic deal, until you read that fine print which says these prices are only one-way — and if you want that rate, you naturally need to buy a round-trip ticket.
(Why do the airlines play these silly games? It’s not as if you’re going up end up paying only half the fare for a round-trip flight, right?
COME CORRECT, COME DIRECT
All the same, it looks as if Delta is making an early bid to become America’s air bridge to Africa. In addition to Liberia, Delta is starting direct U.S. service this fall to:
- Lagos and Abuja, Nigeria
- Cairo, Egypt (and yes, Egypt is in Africa, whether Egyptians like it or not!)
- Dakar, Senegal
- Accra, Ghana
- Johannesburg, South Africa
It also has its sights on Equatorial Guinea and Nairobi, Kenya.
That puts Delta flights literally end to end across the Mother Continent.
According to Britain’s Financial Times, Continental is planning a route connecting Houston and Lagos starting next year. European airlines also are looking to get in the game, notably Germany’s Lufthansa.
So what’s holding up the rest?
Read the entire Financial Times story here.
WAITING ON A DREAM
According to FT, a lot of airlines feel they can’t handle the long ranges of African air routes and still turn a profit without the new Boeing 787 Dreamliner.
And that’s a problem, since this bird was supposed to have entered service in 2008 — the same year Delta applied for its Liberia route.
Not only has the Dreamliner yet to carry a single paying passenger, but technical problems have pushed back its debut by two years — and they haven’t stopped yet. Some airlines have canceled their orders for it, and one even wants Boeing to cough up $840 million for the delays. Ouch.
Even so, it looks as if the world’s major air carriers have finally figured out that Africa is a place they need to be, a feeling reinforced by the success of this year’s FIFA World Cup in Johannesburg. And you increasingly get the feeling that, sooner rather than later, they’ll get there.
The end result should put the Mother Continent within much easier reach for American and European travelers. With luck, the increased competition also will make the flights cheaper.