Delta has deferred plans to launch a route from Atlanta to Luanda, Angola, in September because of delays in obtaining security clearance for the service from the Transportation Security Administration.
The move follows Delta’s postponement in early June of the launch of service from Atlanta to Nairobi, Kenya, also because of TSA concerns.
The TSA’s actions spotlight African aviation safety and security issues that the U.S. has been trying, unsuccessfully, to help improve for more than a decade, as highlighted by a U.S. Government Accountability Office report released last month.
Initially, Delta had planned to start direct service between Angola and Atlanta in June, with a stop in Cape Verde. The carrier delayed that start until September to get foreign government approvals.
But now the airline has suspended the Angola service indefinitely because Delta needs TSA approvals to start the flights.
TSA said it was "assessing security standards in Angola and has not yet determined the viability of service to the region."
The agency will make the assessment before September, officials said.
"A team of U.S. security experts will be deployed to Angola to work with the government to evaluate current airport security standards as well as analyze potential vulnerabilities," agency officials said.
Ironically, the GAO's June report noted that both Angola and Kenya were charter members of the Department of Transportation's Safe Skies for Africa program, created in 1998 as a presidential initiative and designated in 2003 as the vehicle to support the goals of the 2003 East Africa Counterterrorism presidential initiative.
The safe skies program's main goals include increasing the number of sub-Saharan African countries that meet international aviation safety standards and improving aviation security at African airports.
But the U.S. stopped funding the program, and African leaders made airport safety and security low priorities, the GAO said.
