So that's official now, I take it the McNamara terminal will now be only for DL? btw, IMHO the NcNamara terminal with its tram is one of the best terminals in the whole of the US of A
stylo777 From Turkey, joined Feb 2006, 2870 posts, RR: 12 Reply 2, posted (3 years 2 months 4 days 13 hours ago) and read 3121 times:
its good to see Star Alliance members moving under one roof and this case also very close to each other (gates D1-D9), nevertheless I don't think that any Star member generate such a big connection traffic in DTW. It's more O&D as I hardly see any interline transfer.
Will US Airways also move from the one end of the terminal to the other in order to be closer to the Star partners? Currently they are somewhere between D20-D29
phatfarmlines From United States of America, joined Sep 2001, 1322 posts, RR: 1 Reply 3, posted (3 years 2 months 4 days 13 hours ago) and read 3079 times:
Quoting stylo777 (Reply 2): Will US Airways also move from the one end of the terminal to the other in order to be closer to the Star partners? Currently they are somewhere between D20-D29
All the gates at DTW North Terminal use common-use technology, although the airlines have their own "assigned" sections of the concourse so to speak.
Quoting vctony (Reply 1): IMHO, the McNamara terminal is better than the North Terminal.
Really? Even after DTW went through the pain-staking process of creating a brand-spanking new terminal to modernize itself?
floridaflyboy From United States of America, joined Jun 2006, 1985 posts, RR: 0 Reply 4, posted (3 years 2 months 4 days 9 hours ago) and read 2908 times:
Quoting phatfarmlines (Reply 3): Really? Even after DTW went through the pain-staking process of creating a brand-spanking new terminal to modernize itself?
The north terminal is really quite nice, but pretty basic. The McNamara terminal is just downright impressive! But I do love the blue jetbridges at the North terminal
isitsafenow From United States of America, joined Feb 2004, 4984 posts, RR: 26 Reply 5, posted (3 years 2 months 4 days 6 hours ago) and read 2693 times:
After the break in the CO-DL alliance, it was a matter of time before CO moved. Im surprised they stayed at the McNamara this long.
safe
Is it me or is CHECK SPELLING now in-op?
If two people agree on EVERYTHING, then one isn't necessary.
AAflyguy From United States of America, joined Apr 2006, 350 posts, RR: 2 Reply 6, posted (3 years 2 months 4 days 5 hours ago) and read 2653 times:
It's my understanding that there never was an intent for the North Terminal to be better than the McNamara. The goal was to offer a brand-new facility with expansion capabilities to replace the former Davey Terminal and close the 50yo Smith Terminal to scheduled operations. That was accomplished, and it's a far cry from the Smith, Davey, or Berry, for that matter. To compare it to the McNamara really isn't fair, for the two facilities serve entirely different purposes and the other was built to be the showplace of Northwest Airlines, so NW put lots of extras in that were basically forbidden at the North Terminal due to a low cap on total construction cost. With the astronomical rise in procuring steel, some of the distinguishing features of the North Terminal were value engineered out or reduced in cost to a less expensive alternative. The North Terminal does its job and is a huge step forward for DTW in retiring three old and antiquated terminals. It is a far better airport experience now vs prior to September 2008.
timf From United States of America, joined Mar 2003, 954 posts, RR: 1 Reply 8, posted (3 years 2 months 3 days 18 hours ago) and read 2128 times:
I don't see why the tram would have to be repainted. Sure, they initially painted it red because it was NW's main color, but nothing else on the tram connects it to NW. They removed the NW logo a while ago, and there's no pattern or other colors that can be connected to any past livery of NW. It's simply a contrasting color to the white and grays that make up the rest of the terminal.
PSU.DTW.SCE From United States of America, joined Jan 2002, 6867 posts, RR: 29 Reply 9, posted (3 years 2 months 3 days 17 hours ago) and read 2010 times:
On a semi-related note they are currently painting over the DL (former NW) GSE/Cargo hanger with the NW 747 mural on the east side of Rogell Dr. They've already repainted the north side of the building into sky-blue, and the scaffolding is already hanging on the west side.
NASCARAirforce From United States of America, joined Feb 2005, 3081 posts, RR: 5 Reply 10, posted (3 years 2 months 3 days 16 hours ago) and read 1908 times:
Quoting PSU.DTW.SCE (Reply 9): On a semi-related note they are currently painting over the DL (former NW) GSE/Cargo hanger with the NW 747 mural on the east side of Rogell Dr. They've already repainted the north side of the building into sky-blue, and the scaffolding is already hanging on the west side.
Will it be a DL 747?
That would suck if they got rid of the 747. That 747 been up there as long as I remember - it used to be a 747-200 in the NW Orient colors, then went to a 400 in bowling shoe colors - but as long as I could remember there always been a 747 on it.
WA707atMSP From United States of America, joined Oct 2006, 2038 posts, RR: 13 Reply 11, posted (3 years 2 months 3 days 8 hours ago) and read 1758 times:
Quoting NASCARAirforce (Reply 10): That 747 been up there as long as I remember - it used to be a 747-200 in the NW Orient colors,
I think NW painted the 747 on the hangar in 1983 / 84. In the 1960s and 1970s, the hangar was painted white, and said "Northwest Orient Airlines" in the same font NW used on ticket jackets / timetables in the late 1950s.
Going completely OT, when I flew through DTW last month, I asked AA employees when the wonderful quilt that AA employees made in 1976 would be coming back to Detroit. This quilt used to be in AA's gate area at the L C Smith Terminal , but has been "at the C R Smith Museum for cleaning" ever since AA moved to the new terminal. The employees I spoke with still don't know when it will be coming back to DTW.
I hope the quilt doesn't stay at the Smith museum - IT BELONGS IN DTW!
FWAERJ From United States of America, joined Jun 2006, 3172 posts, RR: 1 Reply 13, posted (3 years 2 months 3 days 7 hours ago) and read 1665 times:
Neither was unexpected. In fact, I was surprised to see that the "Northwest Airlines Welcomes You to Detroit" mural was still up and not repainted this January, right next to a hangar with a giant Delta logo, and a bunch of planes in Delta livery. I thought that DL would have repainted it three to six months before...
Anyway, not to go too OT, but as for other Star Alliance UA/CO gate moves, will UA move to CO's gates at ATL, from the UA gates on T to CO's D gates? CO's gates are underutilized, and there's a Presidents Club on D, IIRC. Makes all the sense in the world, plus it could open up room for WN at ATL...
PSU.DTW.SCE From United States of America, joined Jan 2002, 6867 posts, RR: 29 Reply 14, posted (3 years 2 months 3 days 6 hours ago) and read 1635 times:
Quoting FWAERJ (Reply 13): Neither was unexpected. In fact, I was surprised to see that the "Northwest Airlines Welcomes You to Detroit" mural was still up and not repainted this January, right next to a hangar with a giant Delta logo, and a bunch of planes in Delta livery. I thought that DL would have repainted it three to six months before...
You don't really want to paint the exterior of a building in Detroit in January.
ca2ohHP From United States of America, joined Sep 2005, 932 posts, RR: 2 Reply 15, posted (3 years 2 months 2 days 22 hours ago) and read 1447 times:
Quoting phatfarmlines (Reply 3): All the gates at DTW North Terminal use common-use technology, although the airlines have their own "assigned" sections of the concourse so to speak.
Actually AA, US, WN, FL and UA have their own equipment at their proprietary gates. F9, U5, LH and RJ are on the common use platform. One of the common use gates (D19) that AA uses even has their own equipment.
The original artist offered to repaint it to Delta, for free. Delta reportedly declined the offer.
Quoting stylo777 (Reply 2): Will US Airways also move from the one end of the terminal to the other in order to be closer to the Star partners? Currently they are somewhere between D20-D29
US leases D14, D24, D25, D26. As of now, there is no plan to relocate.
PacificClipper From United States of America, joined Aug 2009, 311 posts, RR: 0 Reply 16, posted (3 years 2 months 2 days 16 hours ago) and read 1297 times:
Quoting FWAERJ (Reply 13): will UA move to CO's gates at ATL, from the UA gates on T to CO's D gates? CO's gates are underutilized, and there's a Presidents Club on D, IIRC
I would think probably not in this case. There really are very few if any connections to be made between UA & CO at ATL. More importantly though, UA's gates are a premium location being right behind ticketing thus avoiding the train ride out to D.
DeltAirlines From United States of America, joined May 1999, 8771 posts, RR: 13 Reply 17, posted (3 years 2 months 2 days 16 hours ago) and read 1268 times:
Quoting PacificClipper (Reply 16):
I would think probably not in this case. There really are very few if any connections to be made between UA & CO at ATL. More importantly though, UA's gates are a premium location being right behind ticketing thus avoiding the train ride out to D.
22 flights a day out of 4 gates isn't exactly sub-optimal for Continental - it's still 5.5 flights/day/gate, which isn't horrible for an outstation. If you're getting 6 flights/day/gate, you're doing quite well, so to only be two flights/day off that pace isn't bad considering varying seasonal fluctuations (CO tends to be between 22-26 flights/day throughout the year).
As for moving UA to D, there are two issues. One is that UA is in a good location as it is - being on T is quite nice. No train, UA/AA share a checkpoint that is de-facto theirs, etc. The second is lack of gates on D. There are a lot of common use gates on D, but it would likely require some work to get UA and the City of Atlanta to switch gates, especially since those CUTE gates are used primarily by AirTran, who quite possibly will have some sway in the negotiations and they likely don't want to swap gates on D for gates on T due to their hub operation being split between C/D right now.
Not an optimal solution for airlines wanting to co-locate, but ATL is not the worst situation, especially since it takes no more than 10 minutes (and no reclearing TSA) to get from the UA gates to the CO gates at ATL. The lack of needing to re-clear TSA and lack of connections will probably outweigh having to deal with moving UA to D (and AA most definitely will not be giving up their prime location on T - where they have a nice Admiral's Club, are the first gates after TSA, and have their own baggage claim area in the former Int'l Arrivals area that's away from the rest of the baggage claim chaos in Atlanta).
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