By Lawani Mikairu

LAGOS — Delta Airline has airlifted over 900,000 passengers from Nigeria in the last Eight years. This was revealed by the airline Commercial Director, East and West Africa, Mr. Bobby Byran while fielding questions from aviation reporters and giving an update of the airlines activities during the year and its projections in the coming year.

Delta-Airline

Byran also said that Delta will continue to fly the Lagos route as Nigeria as a destination is one of the airlines strong markets, adding: “Africa is the future and Nigeria is the future of Africa.The Nigerian market always comes back against the run of play. In other climes, other markets have periods where there is traffic peak and when it is low but the Nigerian market is the exception.

“Delta started service between Nigeria and the United States in December 2007, since that date we have carried over 900,000 passengers on the route. Delta is now the only airline to operate a daily year-round service between the U.S. and Lagos. On average we carry approximately 10,000 passengers per month.”

“Delta has a strong market share of Nigeria-U.S. traffic and on our Lagos to Atlanta flight we have an average load factor of over 80% with bookings trending positively.   Delta has strong links between Nigeria and the United States.  Not only given the large amount of high yield oil related passenger traffic and Lagos’ status as the commercial capital of Nigeria, but also given the strong ties with Atlanta which is home to a large Nigerian population.”

The Delta director while responding to questions on aircraft type beng flown into Nigeria and their age, said that Delta would only use the right equipment for the right market at any particular point in time.