Southwest Airlines flew out of the airport for a while.
Southwest Airlines flew out of the airport previously.
Over the years, Coleman A. Young International Airport on Detroit's east side, formerly known as Detroit City Airport, intermittently had commercial passenger service. But the airport has continued to go down hill and hasn't had regular commercial service in more than 15 years.
At least 11 airlines have started passenger service at the 264-acre airport at Gratiot and Conner since 1975, including Southwest Airlines and Pro Air. Now it handles personal and corporate planes.
Now, a 40-page report produced by a team of consultants and airport experts, commissioned by the city, finds that investment proposals range from $23 million to maintain the airport in a state of “good repair,” to $83 million to bring back commercial passenger service, reports Christine Ferretti of The Detroit News.
"If that aviation market is not growing much — which it isn’t — the only way to get more business at our airport is to take it from someone else’s airport. Part of what we’re going to have to figure out is, is that a realistic thing to go do? What do we need to do in order to make that happen and how would it work?" says Jed Howbert, executive director of Detroit’s jobs and economy team,.
"You are talking tens of millions of dollars to get to a point of a state of good repair of the current facilities, let alone something more than that."
There's also talk of using the airport for non-plane uses including an industrial development or a mobility park for autonomous air and ground testing. The study now will evaluate the economic impact of proposed scenarios, identify potential partners and nonaviation uses.
