United Airlines eager to tap expected growth in US-Africa market

United Airlines aims to further expand its network in Africa, the fast-growing market it only began serving last year and last month tripled its capacity in with the launch of Houston-Lagos service. But the rate of expansion will likely be relatively slow, reflecting some of the growing pains in Africa experienced by rival Delta Air Lines">Delta Air Lines.

The opportunities in Africa for US carriers are huge given the current small number of flights in the market and the increasing economic ties between the US and several African countries. US-Africa has always been a modestly sized market that has traditionally been served primarily with connections via Europe. Slowly more direct services are opening up and over the next several years new flights are expected to be launched by US and African carriers.

Africa finally became the sixth and final continent to be added to United's network in Jun-2010, when the carrier launched daily Boeing 767 service on the Washington Dulles-Accra route.