Delta postpones flights to Liberia, Kenya
June 3, 2009 By HARRY R. WEBER

Delta Air Lines planes line up at Atlanta's Hartsfield-Jackson International Airport

ATLANTA (AP) — Delta Air Lines Inc. had to scrap its much-anticipated inaugural flight Tuesday from the U.S. to Kenya because the U.S. government says it won't allow the world's largest airline operator to serve that route until security concerns in and around Nairobi are resolved.

The Atlanta-based airline also said that for the same reason cited by the government it would have to postpone its inaugural flight from Atlanta to Monrovia, Liberia, that had been scheduled for June 8.

The Kenyan government responded that it has complied with all additional security measures requested by Delta. It also declared that the Nairobi airport's security is "excellent."

In May, the U.N. Security Council said it would re-evaluate the need for a 10,000-strong peacekeeping force in Liberia, which has been emerging from a disastrous civil war. The U.S. ambassador to the 15-nation council said the U.N. body found Liberia to be "calm" and called the situation on the ground "encouraging."

Delta said in a statement that it just learned Monday of the Transportation Security Administration's decision, and it suggested that the agency simply needs more time to approve its requests and that the government is focused on finalizing approvals as quickly as possible.

But the TSA said in its own statement that it is currently denying air service by Delta to Nairobi and Monrovia until security standards are met or security threat assessments change. It gave no indication when its concerns might be resolved. It also said that while it provided Delta verbal notification Monday, it has had "active dialogue" with the airline throughout the process. Delta announced the proposed routes in November 2008.

According to U.S. Department of Transportation spokesman Bill Mosley, Delta has had DOT authority to serve Kenya and Liberia since April 2007. The TSA is under the auspices of the Department of Homeland Security.

The Boeing 767-300ER that was expected to fly Tuesday from Atlanta to Dakar, Senegal, refuel, and then head to Nairobi has 217 seats. Delta said the plane would have been mostly full for the 18-hour trip.

The majority of the passengers were rebooked on a KLM flight that will arrive in Nairobi Wednesday evening, about 90 minutes after their initial flight had been scheduled to land. Others were rebooked on Air France and Kenya Airways flights.

A handful of passengers, however, will have to stay overnight in Johannesburg, South Africa, before arriving in Kenya on Thursday, Delta spokeswoman Susan Elliott said.

Some passengers decided not to go at all, Elliott said.

Delta's proposed Atlanta-Nairobi service has raised prospects of more trade between the U.S. and Kenya.

Kenya is a top exporter of flowers to Europe, some of which have ended up in the U.S. And over the years, the Kenyan immigrant population in the U.S. has grown, boosted by the fact that Kenyans now make one of the largest groups of African students in the U.S. Those students' annual return home for the summer holidays is commonly referred to as the return of the "summer bunnies."

Pan Am was the last U.S. carrier to fly to Nairobi, ending its flights in the 1980s. Those were, however, connecting flights through the capital of Liberia, Monrovia. But by the time Pan Am ended its flights to Africa, more than 300 Kenyans had been employed as staff, says Joe Aketch, a Kenyan who worked with the defunct airline for 17 years, rising to be marketing director for Africa.

Kenya is an aviation hub for the region, with many European, Arab and Asian airlines using Nairobi to offer their customers connections to other African countries.

Delta has been cutting domestic capacity because of weak demand amid a slow economy and plans to cut international capacity beginning in September. It said Tuesday that it still considers Africa an important part of its international service.