Well, I started up a newsletter for us Detroit Spotters (for anyone who wants to join, email or PM me) and I thought I would post the news section for any of you that are interested:
NEWS IN BRIEF:
DETROIT SPOTTERS NEWS: Member Nick Greed will be leaving Michigan Friday, November 23rd to go attend ATP down in JAX, Florida. Wish him luck! Nick, you are a great a great guy and I am proud to call you friend! See you when you get back!
11/15/07 Mesaba plans to add 250 jobs and base at least 16 CRJ-900’s as well as some more CRJ-200’s at DTW. The Saabs are also getting refurbishment this month.
11/11/07 Northwest re-started DTW-AMS with a 747-400. For the winter and summer months 2008.
11/7/07 ACI-NA (Airports Council International – North America) voted the McNamara Terminal as the “Best Convenience Retail Program in North America” This comes on the heels of the news that the McNamara Terminal was honored in the 2007 Airport Revenue News (ARN) Concession Poll as: Best Overall Concession Program, Best Concession Management Team, Best Concession Program Design, and Airport with the Most Unique Services. DTW also finished first place among large North American airports in the categories of Best Food & Beverage Program and Best Retail Specialty Program, in Airports Council International – North America’s (ACI-NA) 2006 Excellence in Concessions Contest. Props to the DTW concessions team, way to go in helping DTW be known as one of the best airports in the country!
11/6/07 The Wayne County Airport Authority last Tuesday detailed a new growth plan for DTW. They sees traffic at DTW to grow 67% within the next 20 years (36 million PAX/year to 60 million, on par with LAX). The airport commission wants to install a light rail system between the McNamara and North terminal. This plan was quickly shot down by Northwest, whose vice president of government affairs, Andrea Fischer Newman said “We don’t believe there is ridership for it. Money is better used for runways, taxiways, or terminals, which benefit the largest number of passengers”. The airport also wants to install a 5th parallel runway, yes you heard me right A 5TH PARALLEL!. Only one airport in the country has 5 parallels, DFW. I don’t feel we really need this extra runway, DTW is never crowded runway wise. It would make a total of 7 runways at DTW. All of the changes would be paid for by PFC’s (Passenger Facility Charges)
11/6/07 FYI: Traffic is being rerouted on Rogell drive. Upper and lower are effected due to the construction of the new transportation center.
11/5/07 KLM is returning to DTW using their own metal starting March 30, 2008!:
DTW-AMS
KL #618
Depart: 20:40pm
Arrive: 10:35+1 day
Aircraft: A332
AMS-DTW
KL #617
Depart: 16:20
Arrive: 18:05
Aircraft: A332
9/27/07 Ok, it’s not recent but I feel it is worth a mention. China Southern will start flights to DTW starting in 2009 using the Boeing 787. This is only the second route that China Southern has to the US, currently they only have an LAX flight. This is an exciting time for the airport as we expand internationally.
Hope you guys enjoyed it.
