THE US carrier Delta has turned in a stunning report card eight months after it inaugurated a service to South Africa that skeptics believed would fail. No USA carrier has operated successfully into sub Saharan Africa for almost twenty years, so it was somewhat ironic when the man whose job it was to turn off the lights then for Pan Am, was back in Johannesburg to report on Delta’s success. South African-born director of sales for Africa, Middle East and India, Jimmy Eichelgruen told TravelHub that passenger numbers have not only proved the skeptics wrong, but also surprised Delta. In eight months the airline has carried some 34 000 passengers originating in the USA and 46 000 originating in SA. While the average load factor has been 80 %, since mid June they have not had an empty economy seat available on any of their daily flights. Equipment on the route will be upgraded from a Boeing 767-300 to a 767-400 with effect from October 27. The refurbished larger aircraft have 22 more seats of which seven are in business class. All passengers will now have leather seating and their own on-demand in-flight entertainment. Eichelgruen said that Delta is now being taken seriously as a force that is helping develop South Africa tourism. This month Johannesburg features on the front cover of their in-flight magazine and the city will be positively exposed to their nine million passengers. The flight from Atlanta is via Dakar in Senegal and is proving an attraction also for passengers from Latin America who would like to get to Africa, he said.