A new nonstop flight from Atlanta to Sweden’s capital will attract more Swedish business to Georgia, according to officials at the Swedish American Chamber of Commerce of Atlanta. 

Delta Airlines Inc. announced this week that it will begin service to Arlanda International Airport in Stockholm June 3, 2008, connecting the capital cities six days per week. 

There are 55 Swedish companies in Georgia and almost 900 U.S. companies operating in Sweden, according to a Delta press release.  Delta’s new route will provide convenient connectivity between Atlanta and Stockholm, which will bolster an already strong relationship between Georgia and the Scandinavian country.

“This direct flight will now put Georgia squarely on the map for even more Swedish businesses looking to relocate or establish a foothold in the U.S.,” said Mee Linden, vice-chair of the Swedish-American chamber. 

Among other growing business interests, the flight will service a well established entrepreneurial pipeline between Savannah and Sweden that has developed over the past few months.

GlobalAtlanta recently reported from Stockholm and from the annual Entrepreneur Days conference in Vaxjo, Sweden, where Georgia companies explored possibilities for doing business there.  Some landed firm agreements with Swedish companies.

Savannah-based Digitus Biometrics Inc., a provider of biometric access control technology, found a potential distributor for its products and became the first Georgia company to set up shop in a Swedish business incubator in Växjö. 

The Delta flight will help Digitus make the most of its trips to Sweden, according to Claude Galipeault, the company’s application development manager.

“What it would do for my company is add a day to productivity because we won’t have to do all this transferring around,” said Mr. Galipeault, who added that his layovers on a recent return flight from Sweden added up to almost an entire day wasted.

“When I got home I was beat and I couldn’t do anything.  Had I not had all those extra layovers I would have been more ready to have meetings and be more coherent,” he said.

Digitus, which Mr. Galipeault said is working on validating agreements forged in Sweden, plans to provide the access control technology for a Savannah incubator-like “landing pad” being opened by the Creative Coast Initiative, an organization that meant to attract knowledge-based businesses to Savannah. 

“Tell Delta I said thanks,” Mr. Galipeault said.

The airline’s announcement is the most recent installment in an international expansion that has seen the addition 29 new international routes since 2005, according to the release.