Coleman Young's testimony before the House Un-American Activities Committee

[kraig]

[QUOTE=Meddle;253425]The whole bit about Southwest and closing E. McNichols trying to fake it as an airport. Doomed to failure from before the drawing board. Should have been left as a corporate and general aviation facility. And should be restored to that now. A typical Coleman farce.







As I remember it, this was being done at the same time that Chicago was having plenty of success with Midway Airport doing the same thing. The plan was to install a longer runway to accomodate the demand for larger commercial aircraft. There was actually a very thorough airport master plan that was put together. The City Council back then balked at that plan during the same time period that they turned down letting Comerica build their headquarters were a vacant Ford Auditorium is still standing.

After the City Council said no to developing the Airport, Northwest Airlines, which had shown a very strong interest in setting up some operations at City Airport, ended up having to work out a much more expensive expansion [[450+ million) at Metro Airport. Had City Council said yes, the City of Detroit would probably have at least a half dozen major airlines operating out of city airport along with the corporate and general aviation operators that packed up and went to the Oakland County International Airport, due to the fact, that the new larger plans that they were acquiring could not be accomodated by city airport either. Subsequently, making Oakland County's airport one of the busiest in the country at that time and still very busy today.

Like I said, Coleman had his faults. But having a vision to turn City Airport into a real airport wasn't one of them.

[Don K]

You might be right about Northwest having had plans for flight operations from City Airport, but I don't recall that. They may have had plans for limited operations from DET [[like to the hubs at Minneapolis-St Paul and Memphis and selected cities on the East Cost and in Florida), but that would not have made building the McNamara terminal unnecessary. Metro already was a major hub for NW, and that hub wasn't going anyplace. The old terminal at Metro, while adequate in the 60's, was completely inadequate and an embarrassment for the region by the 90's. Having said that, it would have been good for the region had the plan to extend the main runway at DET gone through. Having that as an option would make travel way easier for the east side and Macomb.

I do recall the outcry over paving over parts of the cemeteries, and the objections from the mayor of Warren. This one I'd class as a nice try on CAY's part.

[kraig]

You might be right about Northwest having had plans for flight operations from City Airport, but I don't recall that. They may have had plans for limited operations from DET [[like to the hubs at Minneapolis-St Paul and Memphis and selected cities on the East Cost and in Florida), but that would not have made building the McNamara terminal unnecessary. Metro already was a major hub for NW, and that hub wasn't going anyplace. The old terminal at Metro, while adequate in the 60's, was completely inadequate and an embarrassment for the region by the 90's. Having said that, it would have been good for the region had the plan to extend the main runway at DET gone through. Having that as an option would make travel way easier for the east side and Macomb.

I do recall the outcry over paving over parts of the cemeteries, and the objections from the mayor of Warren. This one I'd class as a nice try on CAY's part.

They didn't plan to move operatiosn from Metro, Northwest just wouldn't have had to spend as much as they did expanding at Metro if they had been in a position to do some expanding of their midwest operations at city airport. The cost of doing business at city airport is far less expensive than at metro. Thereby, lowering that 450+ million to around 300+ million. Beleive me, I'm with you regarding the former Northwest Airlines not giving up their largest hub which is Metro.