Delta Air Lines Inc. is already the only U.S. carrier to fly directly to Africa, but a new route to the West African nation of Liberia will expand the airline’s service to the continent.  

The weekly flight to Liberia’s capital city, Monrovia, will start in June 2009.  The total travel time will be 12 hours and 25 minutes including a one-hour refueling stop in Sal Island, Cape Verde. 

Atlanta-based Delta has already made a heavy bet on the African market as it continues to pursue its international expansion strategy, said Maria Schnabel, Delta’s director of international corporate communications.

“Overall, we have a strong focus on Africa as an emerging region that has a significant pent-up demand for direct travel to the U.S., and our experience so far has proved us right,” she told GlobalAtlanta.

Liberia in particular has strong historical, cultural and commercial ties to the U.S. that will help sustain the route, she said.

Liberian President Ellen Johnson-Sirleaf praised the new flight in an announcement at the National Press Club in Washington, according to a Delta press release.

Ms. Johnson-Sirleaf, a Harvard University-educated economist who won a peaceful election in 2005, said the flight would encourage Liberians in the African diaspora to return to their homeland and undertake business and development projects.

“Delta Air Lines is providing a means to bring business into the country and we welcome them," she said.

Wilfred Harris, director of the Atlanta-based Liberian-American Partnership Initiative, said the country’s rich mineral resources, temperate climate and beautiful landscapes have garnered growing interest in business and tourism between the two countries.

He said Delta’s route from New York to Accra, Ghana, is often filled with Liberians and that Delta made a “great decision” to “cut out the middleman and fly straight to Monrovia.”

Mr. Harris made two trips to Liberia last year and said the flight to New York and transfer from Delta to Kenya Airways in Ghana cost him an extra day of travel and heightened the risk of lost luggage.

He said Liberia is regaining stability after a long period of anarchy and war, and the country needs investment, especially from African-Americans.

With a little help, Liberians would be able to buy more American goods, he said. 

“You don’t need an MBA to figure this out,” said Mr. Harris, a native Liberian who came to the U.S. about 10 years ago. “There’s something about American products—dresses, pens—people will buy these things if they just have a little life jacket, that’s all we’re asking for.”

From Atlanta, Delta operates nonstop service to Lagos, Nigeria, and uses a route to Dakar, Senegal, as a gateway to Johannesburg, South Africa.

Delta also flies to Dakar from New York’s John F. Kennedy International Airport, and serves Cape Town, South Africa, from there.  In addition to these flights and the Accra route, Delta operates a nonstop flight from New York to Cairo, Egypt.