Ah yes, the romance of the drive up stairs. Made me a little misty to think about my first time stepping onto one of those contraptions.

My wife and I took this same route last year when Delta partner South African Airways was flying it. Even though SAA tends to cramp the seats together and the food wasn't the greatest, I loved that flight. The stop in Dakar was just as you envisioned it, though it was still dark outside when we landed. Unfortuantely, we weren't allowed to deplane during the short refueling stop, but--as you wrote--that stop may be cut out all together with the new 777's.

Wonderful article. You did a great job encapsulating the romance of flying to far off locations. And boy did you make me miss Pan Am. Growing up in the South Pacific I lived close to the island airport. There was something beautiful about seeing Pan Am's livery descending from the skies.

These days, during most long transcontinental flights, you are strongly encouraged either by peer pressure or by the flight attendants themselves to keep the window shades down. Bright light streaming into the cabin loudly betrays any offender. Recently on a flight from Europe to South Asia, it was only through a rebellious act that I was able to view, cloudless and crystal clear, the Himalayas. Right outside the window was breathtaking grandeur. The white peaks soaring…, almost level with the wingtips (cruising at 31000 ft) as you looked straight out. No calls from the cockpit to have a look, and very few actually took the trouble. Then back to a dark cabin for sleep and in-flight movies.

I thought that this article was well-written and addressed a lot of pertinent issues about this topic. However, one thing that was hardly mentioned was the fact that American airlines, in general, are just not fun to fly. This was alluded to by the writer of the first letter, who believes that it is somewhat of a sin to open a window shutter! That is an incredibly shallow constraint for a person on a 10-hour plus flight to have to even consider. Add to that the surliness and resentment of a large number of American flight attendants, the poor in-flight entertainment, the lack of complimentary food and booze (sometimes), the fact that you often have to pay for even headphones... and it makes for quite a tiresome flight, especially over 6000-miles! It was mentioned in the article that airlines are supposed to be ambassadors for their country - I'm sorry to say that American airlines in general do a very poor job of this. If you take a trans-continental flight from Asia to the States on Singapore Airlines (to use but one example), you get spacious, comfortable seats, friendly and welcoming staff, your own personal TV monitor on which you can watch a selection of more than 10 movies at any given time, you can choose from over 200 different selection of music CD's, you can play a wide variety of video games, you can open the window shutters without any worries, and you can enjoy a choice of exotic and tasty cuisine and a wide selection of international beers. If Delta or any other American airline wants to compete with other carriers, they have to become far less stingy and more welcoming to their customers - especially if they are moving into long-haul flight routes.

Wait - the glass plaque on my desk says I was on the inaugural flight for SA207 from Johannesburg to IAD via Ghana on July 1, 2005. Wasn't South African Air ahead of Delta on this?

Incidentally, having taken the SA/Delta Atlanta-Cape Verde-Jo'burg flight a couple of times, I can heartily recommend it to all travelers!

Also, when the inaugural SA flight landed at Dulles, we were greeted by the ground crew crossing firehose streams above the plane, as a sort of christening or baptism. Is that a universal tradition?

"...it was launch day for Flight 34, Delta Air Lines' new nonstop service between Atlanta and two African cities."

Nonstop to two cities? Do you have to bring you own parachutes, or does Delta provide them?

> How many people will be looking out the window

> with the contemplative awe such sights deserve?

You'd probably have to pry me from the window with a crowbar to stop me from looking.

I'm not sure it matters that a US carrier is on this route or any other. US international airports are full of carriers from around the world these days flying routes from our country to places all over the world. And as others have pointed out they are doing it with much more in the way of comfort, amenities, and politeness of air staff than the US carriers do or can. And with the big global alliances you can even collect FF miles into your US account by flying on the foreign partner lines.

However it's not just he US carriers that make you keep the window shades closed except take off and landing. I flew Thai Airways JFK-BKK and we had to keep the shades closed. The staff certainly enforced this, and anyway people were trying to sleep at various times and it was always daylight outside on the way to BKK, so keeping the shades closed was a necessity. Of course on the way back it was dark for most of the trip though...

If there was traffic to support more routes to sub-Saharan Africa and money to be made I'm sure the airlines would be all over it. Routes to Asia seem to be expanding thanks to more long-range aircraft and the demand for seats. It is a business after all.

My father, Tommy Thompson, was instrumental in getting Delta its first "real" (i.e. non-partnered) transAtlantic route--from Atlanta to London--back in 1972. Before that, he was instrumental in getting Delta's first nonstop transcontinental route, from Atlanta to Los Angeles. I remember the thrill of flying as a kid--we almost always flew first class, because as non-revs we had the choice of whatever available seats there were, and first class usually sold out last. Once, a pilot got FAA permission to fly over the Grand Canyon on a trip to LA and nearly turned the plane on its side so we could get a better view. On summer evenings, we'd sometimes go to the airport and my dad would watch the planes take off, look at his watch and the logo on the fuselage and say, "Chicago" or "Birmingham." Flying then was travel, and travel was thrilling, not the ordeal it is today. It seems so very, very long ago. Good luck to Delta--and, more importantly, to the idea of travel as an adventure.