Impact of Delta hub on Metro Detroit?

[MrNittany]

Yet, in Detroit's case, that mostly applies to domestic flights. International options are fairly paltry. And Delta has been decreasing, not increasing international service out of DTW lately.

I always hear this - but is it really true?

Typical day at DTW [[Europe):
4 flights to Amsterdam
3 flights to Paris [[2 Delta, 1 Air France)
2 flights to Frankfurt [[1 Delta, 1 Lufthansa)
1 flight to each of Heathrow, Munich, Rome
Possibly [[depends on day of week) a flight to Amman, Jordan

Typical day at DTW [[Asia):
1 flight to each of Tokyo, Beijing, Seoul, Shanghai
Possibly [[depends on day of week) a flight to Nagoya

Typical day at DTW [[Western Hemisphere x Canada and USA):
2 flights to Mexico City [[1 Delta, 1 Aeromexico)
A handful of other flights to 2nd-tier Mexican cities

That's a dozen non-stop flights a day to Europe, and 4-5 a day to Asia. All into major-league hub airports. 2 a day into the Western Hemisphere's biggest hub airport located south of the USA. Connections to India are a weakness for DTW, but otherwise, there's no 1st-tier or 2nd-tier city in the world that you can't get to from DTW via a 1-stop connection.

Yes, Delta cut the direct flight to Sao Paulo but that was a very niche flight anyway.

There are issues, admittedly. The big issues are [[1) lack of a OneWorld flight to Europe [[British Airways to LHR would solve this, if that rumor ever comes to fruition), such that all 3 alliances have European flights from DTW. And [[2) all the Asian non-stops are within one alliance [[SkyTeam).

But benchmark that against:

[[A) Issue #2 above is also the case for places like Atlanta, MSP and Denver. You have to really be a big-league city [[or a west coast city) to get multiple alliance flights to Asia. And Detroit is what it is: a tier below the true big-league American cities.

[[B) Denver and MSP [[reasonable peers for Detroit) don't have direct European flights on all 3 alliances either [[although Delta starting DEN-AMS is a rumor).

[[C) The entire state of Ohio has 1 non-stop flight to Europe a day! Delta's CVG-Paris flight. Technically, that flight leaves from Kentucky anyway.

[[D) Some think it is bad that DTW doesn't have any of Turkish, Emirates, Ethiad or Qatar. But Royal Jordanian sort of serves that role as is. If one of those 3 ever came in, it would likely eventually be a net zero [[Royal Jordanian leaving).