Amid the record-high numbers of tourists traveling between the U.S. and Europe post-pandemic, airlines have been laser-focused on the continent with new routes to smaller cities that were seeing growing tourist interest but could formerly only be accessed by train or smaller local airline. New seasonal routes launched by United Airlines (UAL) and Delta Air Lines (DAL) earlier this year include Venice and Porto in northern Portugal.
But with many of these new routes now up and running, airlines have begun setting their sights on a more underserved continent with high traveler demand for the end of 2024 and 2025. Last month, budget airline Norse Atlantic (NRSAF) announced that it will start running a new 5,188 nautical mile-route route from London to Cape Town in an effort to “break the duopoly” of having to pick between British Airways and South African Airways.
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Amid widespread attention to the fact that a low-cost airline was launching a route to such a faraway destination, other airlines have steadily started to sweep into the African market. Last week, Delta announced that it would be bringing back the New York-Lagos route that it put on pause in 2022 while also upgrading the planes it uses for flights to Ghana and South Africa.
‘A total of 14 weekly flights to Nigeria’
Set to launch on Dec. 1, the flight between JFK and Nigeria’s largest city will run daily on an Airbus A330-200 (EADSF) and complement the Atlanta-JFK route that was previously the airline’s only direct route to the country.
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“Delta currently operates daily service between Atlanta and Lagos and, with the resumption of daily New York-JFK service, will offer a total of 14 weekly flights to Nigeria in December through the first half of January and 10 weekly flights for the remainder of winter 2024,” the airline announced.
As further part of the expansion of its African service, Delta will also upgrade the plane running its daily flight between JFK and Ghana’s Accra to the 281-seat Airbus A330-900neo. The daily flights to South Africa’s Johannesburg and Cape Town from Atlanta will also eventually be transitioned to the Airbus A350-900 planes that have the capacity to transport as many as 350 passengers.
The latter plane also has a larger number of business class lie-flat beds and premium economy seats that will make the flight more marketable to higher-end travelers.
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Delta wants to become the ‘largest U.S. carrier to Africa’ but other airlines are moving in
All of this is an effort to become, as Delta puts it, the “largest U.S. carrier in Africa” by seriously amping up the flights it runs to the continent over the next two years.
While it currently holds that title, other airlines have also set their sights on a market that is frequently overlooked. In March 2024, United Airlines also announced its plans to expand its African service with six new flights from its hubs in Newark and Washington Dulles airports.
These include flights to Cape Town and Johannesburg alongside new routes to Lagos, Accra’s Ghana and Morocco’s Marrakech.
The latter in particular is a response to growing interest in the region from tourists rather than diaspora members or people with a connection to the region.
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