Delta Air Lines Inc.’s new flights to Africa have strengthened Atlanta’s claim as a gateway to the continent, former Atlanta Mayor Andrew Young told GlobalAtlanta.

The airline announced eight new routes to Africa on Nov. 12 as part of a broader international route expansion that will lead to 15 new routes by mid-2009.  Seven of the new Africa flights will take off from Atlanta.

Mr. Young served on Delta’s board of directors from 1990-2004, but he said in an interview that he held the belief that Delta should invest in Africa routes long before he had an official role with the company.

Africa is a huge market that holds vast potential if world powers can move beyond the idea of a “bilateral world with the United States and Europe” and help the continent fully participate in the global economy, said Mr. Young, also a former U.S. ambassador to the United Nations and Georgia congressman.

“Delta’s flights to Africa, they make as much money on freight as they do on passengers, and the reason for that is that Africa needs everything we've got…” he said.

About 5 million largely well-educated Africans have come to the U.S. since 1970 to pursue employment, political asylum and graduate studies, Mr. Young said.  That number is greater than the 4.5 million who came to America as slaves, he said.

The result has been a reciprocal flow of people and goods that Delta’s starting to see as an opportunity, he said.

“Nigerians send $8 billion back to their families in remittances through the bank and Western Union process.  That's the recognized transfer of wealth.  The unrecognized transfer of wealth, Delta's seeing.  Every one of those flights coming into Lagos is loaded down with freight,” filled with televisions and refrigerators being sent home, he said.

The forces that sustain a flight, he said, are not necessarily business and tourism, but ties between families and immigrants’ lingering affection for their homeland.  He cited Atlanta’s thriving Indian community and the Atlanta-Mumbai flight Delta launched on Nov. 1 as an example.

“You look at the Indian population here and you realize that there are enough people in this region who want to go back and forth to India that we can have regular flights to Mumbai,” he said.

During the interview, Mr. Young also noted his desire for Atlanta to become the home for a new U.S. military command center for Africa, which is currently located in Stuttgart, Germany.

“They’re spending $200 million a year in Germany.  Why not spend that in Georgia?” he said, noting that Atlanta has a strong university base, an amiable environment for Africans and available military bases along with Delta’s unparalleled air access to the continent.

Mr. Young called Delta and Coca-Cola Co. the two main keys to Atlanta’s rise as an international city.

“Coca-Cola has always reached out to more than 200 countries in the world and now Delta is realizing that they too can do business all over the world,” he said.

Mr. Young is co-chairman of Goodworks International LLC, which provides business consulting services in emerging markets throughout Africa and the Caribbean.
 

2010 The Agio Press, Inc. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten or redistributed without expressed permission.