DTW to Amsterdam Airport Schiphol question

**Patrick** · November-08-14, 02:57 PM

I was always curious to know why DTW's busiest international route is to Amsterdam. Is there a specific reason for this? Does SE Michigan have special business ties or some sort of special relationship with the Dutch that contributes to this? As a matter of fact, well over 600K passengers fly annually from DTW to Schiphol. The 2nd highest from DTW is the Frankfurt route with about 245K.

Any thoughts on this?

Rijksmuseum - atcha

**iheartthed** · November-08-14, 03:16 PM

Originally Posted by Patrick

I was always curious to know why DTW's busiest international route is to Amsterdam. Is there a specific reason for this? Does SE Michigan have special business ties or some sort of special relationship with the Dutch that contributes to this? As a matter of fact, well over 600K passengers fly annually from DTW to Schiphol. The 2nd highest from DTW is the Frankfurt route with about 245K.

Any thoughts on this?

Rijksmuseum - atcha

Most likely because KLM is part of the SkyTeam Alliance, and I believe KLM's Schipol hub is the largest SkyTeam hub in Europe. Amsterdam is a transit point for Delta/KLM passengers going to Europe, Asian and Africa. Detroit is a transit hub for passengers going to destinations in North America.

**Patrick** · November-08-14, 03:18 PM

Originally Posted by iheartthed

Most likely because KLM is part of the SkyTeam Alliance, and I believe KLM's Schipol hub is the largest SkyTeam hub in Europe. Amsterdam is a transit point for Delta/KLM passengers going to Europe, Asian and Africa. Detroit is a transit hub for passengers going to destinations in North America.

Makes sense now. Schiphol is probably Europe's best-designed airport btw.

**Cliffy** · November-08-14, 04:13 PM

I think the only non-stop cities to Europe are London, Paris, Amsterdam, and Frankfurt. I remember one time flying Detroit to Milan but I don't think that exists anymore and they also had Detroit to Rome at one point too.

**Hamtragedy** · November-08-14, 04:32 PM

Originally Posted by Patrick

Makes sense now. Schiphol is probably Europe's best-designed airport btw.

except that it seems to shuttle all KLM's passengers into the bottleneck that is customs, which is the entry point to the entire EU for all of those passengers at seemingly the exact same time.

**iheartthed** · November-08-14, 05:42 PM

Originally Posted by Patrick

Makes sense now. Schiphol is probably Europe's best-designed airport btw.

I hear that Zurich's international airport is very nice, but I have yet to see for myself. But it's not exactly hard to be the best airport in Europe, lol. I think that DTW is better than most of the European airports I've ever been to. Europe does train stations much better.

**mwilbert** · November-08-14, 05:55 PM

Originally Posted by iheartthed

Europe does train stations much better.

Europe does trains much better.

**iheartthed** · November-08-14, 06:01 PM

Originally Posted by mwilbert

Europe does trains much better.

Yeah, they definitely do trains better than we do, lol. Nearly every rich country does... But I meant that Europe does train stations better than they do airports. From my experience, Europe's aviation system is pretty similar to the U.S.

**mtburb** · November-08-14, 08:37 PM

Originally Posted by mwilbert

Europe does trains much better.

Europe does all non-air public transit much better.

**Patrick** · November-08-14, 09:26 PM

I spent a good amount of time in Amsterdam while I was living in Europe last winter/spring and noticed a LOT of Tigers caps and M logos worn by tourists in the city. I saw more Tigers caps than NY Yankees hats too.

**Gannon** · November-09-14, 06:29 AM

Yeah, this must stem from that old Northwest Airlines/KLM alignment.

I wonder if this was the case back in the 90s, too. My only trip to Europe [[so far) was to Heathrow...my [[then) Chicago friend flew from O'Hare and me from DTW, and we cleared customs within fifteen minutes of each other.

Crazy to hear about the sports logos, Patrick. I remember hearing Howard Hertz say the record stores he visited in Switzerland were nearly a third filled with "Detroit Music". How far and deep and wide is the reach of the Spirit of Detroit?!

**tielerh11** · November-09-14, 10:18 AM

Yes, Delta, Air France-KLM [[they are one company with two brands), and Alitalia have a revenue sharing joint venture for their transatlantic [[TATL) business. All transatlantic route decisions are made jointly, and the profits/losses are shared by the carriers. DTW and AMS carry passengers to beyond destinations in North America and Europe as others have noted. Gannon is right that this all started as a Northwest and KLM agreement before DL/NW merged and AF/KL merged. This is also why you will sometimes notice two flights a day to CDG [[one DL op, one AF op) and also a summer seasonal flight to FCO.

Delta's acquisition on 49% of Virgin Atlantic has led to a similar agreement between those two carriers and is why you'll see a Virgin Atlantic flight to London next summer.