DTW/ORD Fan! From United States of America, joined Feb 2001, 288 posts, RR: 0 Posted (12 years 3 months 1 day 15 hours ago) and read 685 times:
Ever since Southwest Airlines came to DTW a number of years back, everyone in the Metro area has been asking SWA to create a large operation there. This would be greatly appreciated, because it would mean a good lowfare airline, that can stand up to Northwest's monopoly at DTW and put a little competion in the market. When NW moves to Midfield this December, they are planning to shut down the old Davey Terminal (old NW terminal) and totally re-construct it to look something similar to Midfield. It would have 26-29 gates, and house the rest of the airlines serving Detroit. Hopefully this will entice SW to increase operations. What do you think??
ScottB From United States of America, joined Jul 2000, 6373 posts, RR: 34 Reply 1, posted (12 years 3 months 1 day 14 hours ago) and read 661 times:
Well...
Did people in Detroit make an effort to fly on the last low-fare airline which tried to have its largest operation in Detroit (yes, I mean Pro Air) or did they say, "Great, thank you for lowering our fares but I'm going to keep flying on Northwest because I only need 30 more segments to get emerald-encrusted platinum WorldPerks status and maybe if I'm lucky I'll get upgraded to First Class..."
I doubt you'll see much expansion by SWA at DTW until they've taken advantage of expansion opportunities at the many non-fortress-hub airports they don't serve yet.
N312RC From United States of America, joined Aug 2000, 2678 posts, RR: 18 Reply 2, posted (12 years 3 months 1 day 13 hours ago) and read 655 times:
WN has a crapload of daily departures out of DTW as it is. They've got hourly flights to MDW, flights to BNA, etc. It seems that there has been a buildup of WN at DTW anyway (with that couple gate extention on the Smith terminal). Same goes for Delta. They have more planes there than avail. gate space, therefore, they use NW gates sometimes. Is it a sign of things to come?
WN boy From , joined Dec 1969, posts, RR: Reply 4, posted (12 years 3 months 1 day 11 hours ago) and read 626 times:
They have a similar billboard on Field Street just north of downtown in Dallas. It reads "If We Didn't Exist, Would Low Fares?" An interesting question.
DCA-ROCguy From United States of America, joined Apr 2000, 4402 posts, RR: 37 Reply 5, posted (12 years 3 months 21 hours ago) and read 603 times:
SWA only has about 21 daily flights at Detroit Metro--11 to MDW, and a few apiece to BNA, STL, and one to Phoenix. That's hardly a "crapload" by WN standards. The airline has more flights at Providence (28) and almost as many at Manchester (18) as compared to DTW. Cleveland is at about 25. Contrast that to BWI which has over 120.
Scott's right--WN will probably build up at non-fortress airports first. What so many of the Detroit folks who kiss Northwest's Emerald-encrusted ring don't understand is that within a few trips on Southwest they'd save enough money to buy a roundtrip on high-fare NW to most destinations in the US anyway. But as Tony Soprano would say, whaddya gonna do? People who don't want to be helped can't be helped.
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