Detroit City Airport

[rb336]

207/day? that seems very high - 70K plus per year?

[Detroitnerd]

I remember back in the 80's as a youngster going to City Airport with my Grandpa to do whatever with corporate jets he piloted. I didn't realize at the time just how cool I was... hanging out in a private hangar.



View from Gratiot
Attachment 23127

By what stretch of the imagination is Detroit City Airport "international"? Can they even land international flights there? I mean, other than a commuter hop coming in from YQG? It just smacks of such false grandiosity to pile on Coleman, global travel and all that when this should be an enthusiast's airport.

[rb336]

By what stretch of the imagination is Detroit City Airport "international"? Can they even land international flights there? I mean, other than a commuter hop coming in from YQG? It just smacks of such false grandiosity to pile on Coleman, global travel and all that when this should be an enthusiast's airport.

If it has a customs office, it is international. DET has a customs office

[rex]

You know. You go to other cities. Chicago, NY, SF. These are the ones ive flown into in the last 6 months but it made me realize that the location of Metro and poor public transpo has to put Detroit at a business disadvantage. Unless you rent a car its neither easy or fast to get downtown. Fly in to SF on biz or Chicago and you can hop a train and be downtown. Its painless. I'm sure other cities are the same. Its business friendly

[Ltdave]

If it has a customs office, it is international. DET has a customs office

St. Clair County Airport is an International Airport. its a "first point of issue" for air travel in the area...

207/day? that seems very high - 70K plus per year?

this is from Airnav.com. they get the info from the airport managers and since thats "as of 2012" then it might have been a bit busier a couple of years back...

[SpartanDawg]

You know. You go to other cities. Chicago, NY, SF. These are the ones ive flown into in the last 6 months but it made me realize that the location of Metro and poor public transpo has to put Detroit at a business disadvantage. Unless you rent a car its neither easy or fast to get downtown. Fly in to SF on biz or Chicago and you can hop a train and be downtown. Its painless. I'm sure other cities are the same. Its business friendly

this is a huge issue with DTW. the airport is world-class and one of the nicest ones in the country.. but there's just no transportation options.

That's why they're starting shuttles from there pretty soon no? I know detroit bus co. started one and I thought wayne county was starting an official one to go from downtown to the airport.. for like 30 bucks round trip?

[IrishSpartan]

Years ago Greyhound use to have buses from Downtown to the Airport and vice versa that were popular. I know one of these stops was around the Sheraton Cadillac/Book Cadillac Hotel. Although a significant difference back then was many people stayed downtown.

[animatedmartian]

Freep did a story about City Airport and what Orr has planned for it.

http://www.freep.com/article/2014040...t-city-airport

About $30 million dollars that would come Detroit's bankruptcy settlement would be used to upgrade the airport. Those upgrades include:

• New hangars
• Upgraded terminal
• Additional Jetway for bigger planes
• Personal costs
• Improved maintenance, security, and a master plan.

Not included would be any new or extended runways which have been suggested as the way to bring more business to City Airport, but doing so would extend the runway into cemetery on either end of the 15/33 runway. Another study suggested that the runway could be moved west by 750 feet, which would put the runway half way between French Road and Gilbo Avenue [[didn't the city try to forcibly clear out this area?).

[SpartanDawg]

Freep did a story about City Airport and what Orr has planned for it.

http://www.freep.com/article/2014040...t-city-airport

About $30 million dollars that would come Detroit's bankruptcy settlement would be used to upgrade the airport. Those upgrades include:

• New hangars
• Upgraded terminal
• Additional Jetway for bigger planes
• Personal costs
• Improved maintenance, security, and a master plan.

Not included would be any new or extended runways which have been suggested as the way to bring more business to City Airport, but doing so would extend the runway into cemetery on either end of the 15/33 runway. Another study suggested that the runway could be moved west by 750 feet, which would put the runway half way between French Road and Gilbo Avenue [[didn't the city try to forcibly clear out this area?).

heh.. speak of the devil and he shall appear

[downtownguy]

That's why they're starting shuttles from there pretty soon no? I know detroit bus co. started one and I thought wayne county was starting an official one to go from downtown to the airport.. for like 30 bucks round trip?

The new service is called SKOOT. I see their vans all over downtown these days. According to their website, $20 each way to downtown.

http://www.rideskoot.com/index.php

[SpartanDawg]

http://www.dbusiness.com/daily-news/...ining-Academy/

whoa baby...


Trying to have regular passenger flights by 2015 to New York, Chicago, Boston, and Kansas City... that would be huge.

[EastsideAl]

I used to fly Pro Air out of City quite often, going to/from NYC. As an eastsider it was extremely pleasant not to have to drive 30 to 60 mins. just to catch a 90 min. flight. The smallish terminal wasn't bad at all, and was definitely much less crowded and easier to reach than the ones at Metro. In fact, if it hadn't been for the "amateur hour" atmosphere of "Pro Air" [[was any airline ever so misnamed?) and the local security agents it would have been a thoroughly great experience.

To have a major airport that had no practical transportation to the center of the city it was named for was a serious embarrassment for Detroit. I can't tell you the number of my friends and customers who were shocked to hear that they could only get downtown via an extremely expensive cab ride. I'm glad to hear that someone has finally over come the Wayne County cab mafia and has been able to get such a service going again.

[corktownyuppie]

The new service is called SKOOT. I see their vans all over downtown these days. According to their website, $20 each way to downtown.

http://www.rideskoot.com/index.php

I've used Skoot, and it's fantastic. I highly recommend it.

[Király]

Fly in to SF on biz or Chicago and you can hop a train and be downtown. Its painless. I'm sure other cities are the same. Its business friendly

The problem with Detroit is that places that business visitors are likely to want to go are not as heavily concentrated downtown as they are in most other cities. They are spread all throughout the region. That makes trains and other public ground transportation to/from the airport a problem.

[Don K]

The problem with Detroit is that places that business visitors are likely to want to go are not as heavily concentrated downtown as they are in most other cities. They are spread all throughout the region. That makes trains and other public ground transportation to/from the airport a problem.

Too true. Of my four business trips to Chicago, one was to the NW burbs and three were to the Loop, and the el/subway was as quick and convenient as a cab and way cheaper. Here in the D way more business travelers will b e going to Troy, Southfield, Dearborn, or Ann Arbor than will be going downtown.

DET really needs a longer runway to be a viable airport for commercial service. At 5,090 feet, runway 15/33 is marginal at best for jet operations, and likely would be unusable in adverse conditions such as strong winds [[ask me sometime about the takeoff of a flight I took taking off in strong winds on a 6,081 foot runway at Providence).

Given a longer runway, it's possible Southwest might restart service [[IIRC, the reason they pulled out was they wanted to fly to Phoenix, but needed the longer runway that was politically impossible at the time). Alternatively, United could move some flights to their hubs at Newark, Dulles, and Chicago from Metro, or American could fly to Chicago, Dallas, Philadelphia, or Charlotte. Perhaps JetBlue could be persuaded to move their Metro-Boston flights to DET.

I think it would be good to have an alternative to Metro for downtowners/eastsiders/residents of Macomb [[Macombers?).

[rb336]

[[Macombers?).

people who comb macs?

[Zacha341]

Isn't the runway just too short? That's why nothing too big flies into it, or out!

You gotta get to V1/ Rotate fast or your into a headstone! Flew out of there a few times, fun. Not.

[Zacha341]

Do you mean Davis Aerospace HS? It was merged with another school.

Rick Snyder was instrumental in having the Aero Dynamic school closed. Inner city highschool student cant fullfill their dreams of being pilots. This is also a result of weak leadership in the msyors office at the time as well as city council

[Zacha341]

Headstone reading......! Yeah I was sitting just aft the wing of a SW something jet, and it seemed the wings and the flaps were about to come off straining to break down into that thimble of a runway! Great for a helicopter or crop-duster I guess.

I landed on a Southwest Jet back in the early 90s, and I just remember the "reverse-engine" portion of the landing being really intense, add to the fact that it was raining, and the runway was rather bumpy between slabs. I've got family in those cemeteries, and I swear I could see the names on the headstones on the approach.

[Zacha341]

Yeah, flew out of there once to Chicago Midway [[which dissent can be so low you can read mail boxes) and while reading the tombstones, a passenger uding gallows humor pointed out that if we crashed at least we were over a cemetery! Great.

I, too, had a close-encounter with the cemetery on one landing. Usually, I'm fairly relaxed on a commercial flight, but that one was jarring. All the passengers were talking about it as we deplaned.

[Zacha341]

Yeah, flew out of there once to Chicago Midway [[which dissent can be so low you can read mail boxes) and while reading the tombstones, a passenger uding gallows humor pointed out that if we crashed at least we were over a cemetery! Great.

I, too, had a close-encounter with the cemetery on one landing. Usually, I'm fairly relaxed on a commercial flight, but that one was jarring. All the passengers were talking about it as we deplaned.

[swede1934]

Does anyone else remember the huge gas storage tank that used to sit between the two runways? That may have been one of the reasons the airlines fled to Wayne.

[Hermod]

For quite a while, there were three passenger terminals for Detroit. While the airlines were phasing out of city airport, some went to Willow Run and some went to "Wayne Major" [[now DTW). It always seemed like you went to the wrong airport by mistake and then had a mad drive to the other airport. Willow Run was further out than DTW.

[EastsideAl]

For quite a while, there were three passenger terminals for Detroit. While the airlines were phasing out of city airport, some went to Willow Run and some went to "Wayne Major" [[now DTW). It always seemed like you went to the wrong airport by mistake and then had a mad drive to the other airport. Willow Run was further out than DTW.

I was a little kid when Willow Run was still in use as a passenger airport. I remember driving out there to see my grandparents off when they were returning to their retirement home in Florida. Grandpa had worked at Willow Run when it was the Ford bomber plant and had farmed near Belleville in the 1920s, and so was always very excited to go back out that way.

But the main thing I remember is the very cool terminal building. For years I had a memory that I couldn't place of a huge open space with a very strange looking ceiling. Then, through one of those miracles of the internet, I stumbled upon a picture that matched my memory and the whole thing came flooding back - grandparents, old house near Belleville, outdoor concourse to the plane, and all.



Pretty neat for a converted old industrial building, huh?

Because City was so inadequate for large-scale passenger operations, and Metro was still just a little county airfield, the Ford-built airport at Willow Run became Detroit's main passenger airport for many years after WWII. As Metro was expanded there was a slow conversion during which both airports were in use for several years [[and, as Hermod says, it was an easy mistake to go to the wrong one). The last major airlines left Willow Run for DTW in 1966. Willow Run's long distance from the city, and the main Detroit-area population and business centers, posed a problem, which is one reason why Avis Rent-a-Car was founded there as the first airport-based car rental service.

[DetroitPlanner]

Pretty neat for a converted old industrial building, huh?

Wow it is nothing like the Willow Run I remember as a grad student around 1990. I had to go out there for an Satellite/Aerial Photography Interpretation class. We must have had it in a different section. It looked like an old industrial building, but it had nothing like this. I must have been in a part converted to hangers. I can imagine I had only seen a tiny piece of the complex; that place was massive.