Delta expands in Africa as American spreads its wings in Europe

Delta Air Lines is expanding its reach in Africa with a new service to Lagos, Nigeria, from its hub at New York’s John F. Kennedy International Airport. The three-times weekly service is scheduled to begin March 24, 2018, and will complement an existing four times a week service from the airline’s Atlanta hub. Delta already claims the title of the leading US carrier serving Africa with flights to Lagos, Accra in Ghana, Dakar in Senegal and Johannesburg, South Africa. It has also been boosting services to JFK and this spring introduced new trans-Atlantic routes to Lisbon, Berlin and Glasgow. Flights to Lagos will depart JFK Tuesday, Thursday and Sunday with flights leaving Lagos Monday, Wednesday, and Friday. The flights will be operated by Airbus A330-200 aircraft featuring 34 direct-aisle access, lie-flat business seats, 32 Delta Comfort + seats and 168 main cabin seats. “Nigeria has been a strategically important market for Delta over the past 10 years and is a mainstay in our African network,” Delta senior vice president trans-Atlantic Dwight James said in a statement. “As we look ahead to the next decade, we are improving the product offering with the A330 and increasing the number of seats from Lagos.” Spreading its wings in Europe next summer is American Airlines with new services from Philadelphia to Hungary’s Budapest and Prague in the Czech Republic between May 4 and October 27. The airline will also add a Chicago-Venice operation across the same dates. The Prague and Budapest services will be operated by Boeing 767-300s while the Chicago-Venice route will be a Boeing 787-8 Dreamliner. Prague and Budapest are new destinations for American but it already operates to Venice from Philadelphia. The carrier has been expanding its European footprint with new services this summer to Amsterdam and Rome from Dallas/Fort Worth and to Barcelona from Chicago. “Summer travel to Europe is very popular,” American network and schedule planning vice president said Vasu Raja said.  “These flights will conveniently connect customers from two very important hubs – Chicago and Philadelphia – to exciting markets across the Atlantic.”