US airline to begin Atlanta-Lagos flights
africa-interactive.net
United States-based Delta Airlines has announced plans to commence daily non-stop flights between Atlanta (Georgia) and Lagos (Nigeria), beginning 3 December 2007.
The inaugural flight will take-off on 3 December from Hartsfield- Jackson International Airport, Atlanta at 4.25 (local time) and arrive at Murtala Muhammed International Airport, Lagos at 9.25 a.m. (local time).
On 4 December, it will leave Lagos airport at 11.25 a.m. (local time) and land in Atlanta at 6:20 p.m. (local time). The flights between Atlanta and Lagos have already been put up for sale to customers from 22 February on the airlines' website and through other ticketing channels.
A former board member of the airline, Ambassador Andrew Young made the disclosure at the launch of Nigeria's Heart of Africa Project at the weekend in Atlanta.
"I have been informed that they (two parties) are concluding arrangements and other procedures to add Nigeria, as one of our new African destination, in order to solidify Delta's position as the only major US carrier to offer direct flights to Africa countries," Young said.
He described the new schedule as "a connection between the world's largest airline hub in Atlanta and Africa's fast-growing commercial center of Lagos, Nigeria".
He said that the new flights will offer customers three to six hours in time savings, when compared with existing one-stop connections via Europe.
"The new Atlanta-Lagos route builds on the success of more than 50 new international routes added last year as part of an ambitious transformation of Delta's route system that aims to further diversify customer choice with more non-stop flights to Asia, Africa, Latin America and Europe," the former US envoy to the United Nations said.
Sources told PANA that last December, the airline became the only major US carrier to offer flights to Africa with the introduction of service between New York and Accra, Ghana and between Atlanta and Johannesburg via Dakar, Senegal.
"Delta's new service to Nigeria is another example of our airline's spirit of innovation and commitment to creating time savings and value for customers," the airline's chief operating officer, Jim Whitehurst told PANA in Atlanta via telephone.
Whitehurst said: "The recent launching of new flights to Accra and Johannesburg have proven to be very popular with Delta customers and we are pleased to extend the same service and time advantages to customers travelling between Nigeria and the Americas".
Delta will operate the new flights between Atlanta and Lagos with newly acquired Boeing 767-300ER aircraft in a two-class configuration featuring BusinessElite, which is the airline's award-winning business class service.
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published Feb 26, 2007
