One thing that sets Detroit apart from its midwestern counterparts is its airport. Delta's CEO once said in an interview that DTW is "the best airport in North America". Detroit is currently the second largest hub of one of the world's largest airline, undoubtedly bringing thousands of jobs in the aviation industry to the area.

Unfortunately, other midwestern cities have not been so lucky. Cleveland lost its United hub recently, and it now serves a shell of the passengers it once carried. Cincinnati is still a "focus city" for Delta, but it has been severely rolled back from its 1990s peak as Delta's 2nd largest hub. Worse, St. Louis dropped billions and leveled a neighborhood to build a long runway for long haul TWA flights- until TWA merged with American and American dropped the hub after 9/11. Worst of all, Pittsburgh built a massive, new, cutting-edge terminal for US Airways before they quickly departed to build a Philadelphia hub.

These other cities have lost hundreds to thousands of jobs and now see little to no international service, but Detroit maintains flights to Tokyo, Shanghai, Beijing, Seoul, Nagoya, London, Amsterdam, Rome, Paris, and Frankfurt. What is the impact of Detroit's continued use as a "fortress hub" for Delta and how would the area be different without it?