By Gary Gosselin
HPR Media Services

You could say air traffic continues its rebound after taking a baby-sized upward spurt of six-tenths of 1 percent at Detroit Metropolitan Airport during 2003.

“These numbers reflect the same modest, but steady recovery in passenger traffic we are seeing across the nation,” said Lester Robinson, CEO of the Wayne County Airport Authority, which operates Metro and Willow Run Airports. “We are optimistic that Detroit will capture a healthy percentage of future growth with both airside and landside capacity.”

Metro ended with 32.66 million passengers in 2003, compared to 32.478 million passengers in 2002. That’s quite a bit less than the record year of 2000, which saw 35.54 million passengers pass through Metro.

Total flight numbers also were up, said airport officials, with 491,073 operations in 2003, up 188 from the 490,885 landings and takeoffs in 2002.

The bad news was that international traffic was down 2.7 percent, and a number of airlines showed passenger declines, including Air Canada, American, Continental, Delta, Southwest and US Airways.

But the good news was those declines were offset by increases by a number of other airlines that gained for 2003, including America West, British Airways, Lufthansa, Northwest, Spirit, and United.

Although airport officials couldn’t discuss the airport’s financial picture in any detail, according to the Wayne County Airport Authority’s most recent official bond statement, domestic departing passengers are forecast to grow by an average annual rate of 2.7 percent between 2004 and 2010, while departing international passengers are projected to increase by an average annual rate of 7.9 percent for the same period.

“Detroit Metro Airport continues its role as a strong economic engine for this region,” Robinson said. “While handling the equivalent of three times the population of the state of Michigan in total passengers, DTW provides jobs for over 17,000 people on site and spins off more than 50,000 more jobs in the area.”

How do 2003’s numbers compare to Metro’s and aviation’s best year of 2000? Total passengers are down 8 percent. International passengers are down 33 percent and aircraft landings and take-offs are down 11.6 percent.

The Travel Industry Association’s Annual Travel Forecast, projects overall traveler spending by domestic and international visitors will increase 4.4 percent in 2004 to $568 billion, up from $544 billion in 2003. Still, it won’t be until 2005 that the level of spending — forecasted to reach $594 billion — will finally surpass the record set in 2000.

Increasing for the first time since 1999, U.S. residents are forecasted to take more than 122 million business trips in 2004, an improvement of 4.2 percent from 2003. In 2005, business travel will increase 3.5 percent to nearly 127 million trips, according to the TIA.

“It’s clearly good news that business travel will show an up-tick in volume (in 2004). The big unknown is the possible long-term impact of alternative technologies,” William Norman, TIA’s president and CEO, stated at a TIA travel forum. “The question remains, ‘Has the decline in business travel bottomed out?’ What is certain is that it will be some time before business travel returns to its peak levels of the late 1990s.”

If the last couple months are any indication, said Penny Hawkins, manager of Lakes Area Travel Plus in Commerce Township and Travel Plus in West Bloomfield, air traffic — and fares — should continue to climb.

“It’s picked up quite a bit in the last couple months; it’s not up that much in Detroit because they haven’t added much lift (flight services),” said Hawkins, immediate past president of the Michigan chapter of the American Society of Travel Agents.

“Prices are very high and planes are full, and next fall I think we’ll see a real surge,” Hawkins said. “Easter, spring break are sold out, and people can expect no (extra) charters to the Caribbean.”

The airlines have done what they had to do, she said, cut capacity and raise prices to compete, and that philosophy will not change — not this year at least, Hawkins said. She noted traffic to Europe is up and also said many of the price hikes are reflected on the Web.

The days of super-cheap seats from the last two years are over, she said, and that includes Web fares, although they may tend to be a little better than going to one carrier, just because of the options.

And, although Northwest declined to comment on its performance or expectations, it continues as the leader at Metro, with 21.6 million passengers boarding and departing flights, or 78 percent. Those numbers are still well below the record 24.36 million passengers who flew in Detroit in 2000.

Northwest’s numbers included 2.03 million passengers who flew on Northwest Airlink flights offered by Mesaba Airlines and another 1.79 million passengers who caught Northwest Airlink flights offered by Pinnacle Airlines.

When combined, the passenger totals for Northwest and Northwest Airlink operators represented 78 percent of all passengers flying in and out of Metro Airport.

Spirit Airlines, the second-largest carrier, captured about 5.4 percent of all passengers at the airport with 1,709,752 passengers, up from the 1,557,272 passengers a year ago.

Delta would not comment, but Spirit said it’s looking to build on last year’s numbers and looking to expand in Detroit, too.

Next Story >>