American airline flying into Nigeria, Delta Air Lines says it has airlifted over 2.5 million passengers out of African continent in the last five years just as it insists it has no plan to shrink its African market. The airline also said that the country’s flag carrier, Air Nigeria has a great chance of joining the SkyTeam alliance with its safety records and continuous growth in the continent. The Managing Director, Network Planning Transatlantic, Delta Air Lines, Mr. Jeff Lobl made this disclosure yesterday at the airline’s headquarters in Atlanta, Georgia during a tour of the airline’s office by journalists from Nigeria. According to Lobl, since the airline commenced flight operations to Africa in December 2006, it has been able to capture 20 per cent of the market, saying plans are under way to capture more markets in future. Lobl described Africa as the world’s fastest growing economy, stressing that the airline with its capacities could contribute to the continent’s economies.

He said, “We are the leading carrier from America to Africa. We started flight operations to the continent in December 2006 with the JFK-Acrra and Atlanta-Dakar-Johannesburg flights. We started Lagos-Atlanta in 2007 while we added the Abuja-New York in 2009.

He, however, declined to comment if the airline would increase its operations in the continent in the next couple of years, stressing that if the need requires, it would not hesitate to do so.

“Since then, we have not looked back and I’m happy to tell you that we are very pleased with our growth in the continent. Our growth on the continent depends on the environment. We have very ambitious plans and we are executing the plans. For now, there is no immediate plan to add another city into our operations in the continent, but we are looking at options.”

On the challenges from Asian carriers, he explained that the airline acknowledged the challenge from that part of the world, stressing that competition actually brings out the best from businesses.

Also, the Vice President, Alliance, Interline and Industry Affairs, Delta, Mr. Charlie Pappas described the partnership with Air Nigeria as a good development for the airline, saying that both carriers complement each other.

Pappas said that for the airline to further capture the continent’s market, there is a need for the partnership to be developed, adding that the SkyTeam alliance was opened to the airline.

He said, “The alliance is opened to Air Nigeria to join, but we feel we should start gradually and as time goes on, we can improve on the alliance, probably becoming a member of the SkyTeam. Air Nigeria has a tremendous safety operations and they are growing regionally. That is key and in our opinion, if they can improve beyond the region, they have a better chance of joining us because there is no airline that can do it alone.”