Air Hockey

Interesting juxtaposition of pieces regarding Detroit Metro Airport (and Delta Airlines in particular) in today’s Detroit Free Press.  On the front page is a story outlining the growing anger among travelers (particular business travelers, the bread and butter of the airline industry) over the jump in fares that Delta has now instituted on a lot of widely traveled routes.  This is exactly why consumers fear mergers; with Northwest out of the way, Delta can tighten the screws on the cash register and demand top dollar on previously competitive destinations.

But turn to the op-ed page and you’ll find a piece by Delta VP Andrea Fisher Newman rightly extolling the benefits of landing the new US/Tokyo route currently up for bid.  Clearly, Detroit Metro is one of the most critical pieces of the fragile Michigan economic infrastructure.  Its position as one of the major US gateways to Asia comes with all kinds of business advantages and is a huge part of the argument put forth by those who want to develop the “aerotropolis” in western Wayne County.

Fisher Newman’s column is a plea for help, urging Michiganders to be active in the campaign to ensure the route is awarded to Detroit.  The competition for the route to Tokyo’s Haneda Airport is fierce.  (Haneda Airport is to Narita Airport in Tokyo what Midway is to O’Hare in Chicago; it makes for a far more convenient entry point for travelers bound for Tokyo’s city center, and it’s finally being opened up for direct service from the US.)  And with new service from Metro already coming to Hong Kong, Seoul and Shanghai, the Haneda route would be an enormous plum for Detroit.  (The irony that Detroit is having to learn to embrace the continent it long despised is rich, but I’ll save that for another post.)

But you can see the slight disconnect here.  Delta needs the help of those it is angering.  Now, we all understand the razor-thin margins on which the airlines are currently existing.  And it seems to me there is always a rather contentious relationship between a city and its hub airline.  But exasperating security procedures, baggage fees, and packed planes already have travelers fingering their car keys calculating the drive versus the flight.  If Delta needs an engaged, active advocacy from its Detroit customers, it may need to find some salve for the deepening resentment over sticker shock.  After all, there’s a recession going on.  It’s been in all the papers.

-Devin

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