South African Airways is dropping its flights between New York City and Dakar. Not the end of the world, but reason to take notice. Meanwhile, Delta’s hand in West Africa is about to get stronger.

On May 1, South African Airways will begin direct, non-stop flights between New York City’s JFK International Airport and Johannesburg, South Africa.

You can read the airline’s entire announcement, via their press release, here.

SAA is touting this as boon that will “allow travelers the freedom to visit more of Africa with easy and seamless same-day connections to many remarkable countries on the continent.”

At least one country, however, may not be celebrating.

Up to now, the SAA flight from JFK made a short stop in Dakar, the capital of Senegal, before continuing on to Tambo International Airport (JNB) in the city they call “Joburg.”

Not having to stop at DKR will shorten the flight somewhat for folks traveling to/from New York. But what about travelers from the United States who want to go to Senegal — or somewhere else in West Africa, for that matter?

South African will — for now, at least — continue its direct flights from Dulles International Airport in Washington DC (IAD) to Dakar before continuing on to Johannesburg. If you want to fly direct to DKR from the Big Apple, however, you now are down to a single option.

Delta.

They fly to Dakar from NYC and Atlanta. They also fly from those two cities to Accra, Ghana and Lagos, Nigeria. In addition, you can fly Delta from New York to the Nigerian city of Abuja. That’s it.

Other American options? United will fly you from New York to Cairo, from Dulles to Accra and Lagos, or from Houston to Lagos. Again, that’s it. American Airlines? Strictly codeshares with other airlines. Their aircraft don’t set down anywhere on the Mother Continent.

At least, not directly from US soil.

And now, South African Airways is bypassing Dakar on its NY-Joburg flights.

From this, we can infer a few things:

1. SAA may be conceding West Africa to Delta.
2. Delta is the only U.S. airline that even halfway takes Africa seriously as a market…and who knows for how long?
3. If you want to travel from the United States to more than the barest handful of African destinations, the odds are pretty good that you’ll first have to connect from Europe — on a European air carrier.

With South Africa’s successful FIFA World Cup tournament in 2010, there were those who thought that US business in general and the airlines in particular might wake up to the emerging markets on the Mother Continent and decide, finally, to get in the game.

Clearly, so far, that’s not happening.

A good many sub-Saharan African nations, especially in West Africa, are clamoring for a greater flow of travel and tourism from the United States, especially from black Americans. The potential for such a market is there, but a lot of dominoes have to fall in line to make it happen.

And the first of those is to establish a strong air travel corridor between America and Africa.

The current picture suggests that corridor won’t be created any time soon. Rather than partnering with African countries to build up that US-Africa travel market, our airlines seem content to let someone else do that heavy lifting and then come in behind them.

Maybe.

A lot of this may be about fuel prices, which affect the airline industry’s bottom line as sharply as they do yours and mine. Africa’s a long way from us. Emerging markets or not, if you’re going to burn that much gas — and spend that much money — you want something to show for it.

Now, not down the road.

Another factor that may be holding back US airlines from penetrating the African market is Boeing’s problematic 787 Dreamliner.

It was supposed to be lighter and more fuel-efficient than any other wide-bodied airliner, but big enough to carry 200-290 people or so. In theory, you’d be able to carry more passengers a lot farther on one tank of fuel. More non-stop flights and a longer reach.

Also, not being as big as even the venerable Boeing 747, much less the enormous new Airbus A380 super-jumbo, it would be easier for the world’s airports to handle with their existing terminals. Everybody’s happy. Everybody wins.

Sounds great. Except that the 787 has yet to make a dime for a single airline.

Technical problems and delays have dogged this bird almost from the outset. The airlines have had more than 900 Dreamliners on order since 2004; Boeing has yet to deliver even one. Some airlines have cancelled their orders in frustration.

Bottom line: Until the airlines see a strong US-Africa travel market in place — and until either the Dreamliner finally comes on line or fuel prices make an unlikely return to sanity — US airlines probably will continue to treat Africa as if the whole continent were radioactive.

Good news for the European airlines, which will continue to profit from our absence in Africa. Bad news for Americans travelers with an interest in Africa.

On the other hand, it leaves Delta with an emerging market all to itself.

Things that make you go “Hmmmmm”…at 35,000 feet.

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