DTW: Aeromexico Becomes Airport’s 4th New Carrier in Less than 4 Years

Growth in air service continues its upward climb at Detroit Metropolitan Airport (DTW).  Aeromexico recently began selling nonstop flights, beginning early next year, between Detroit and Monterrey, an important automotive market in Mexico.  Aeromexico's new flight joins Delta Air Line's existing Monterrey, Mexico service to give Detroit two daily non-stops. The new flight will operate from DTW’s McNamara Terminal and will be timed to easily link to additional connections throughout Mexico.  The flights will be operated by 99-seat, two-class Embraer 190 aircraft featuring 11 “Clase Premier” seats (Aeromexico’s business class) and 88 coach seats. 

Anko van der Werff, Aeromexico’s Chief Revenue Officer, said: “With this new route we will offer more than 1,300 seats per week between Monterrey and Detroit, a U.S. city known for its development and promotion of the automotive industry. This flight will provide more and better connectivity options not only to states in northern Mexico, but also to Mexico’s Bajio and central region, primarily to cities like Aguascalientes, Leon, Puebla, Queretaro, San Luis Potosi, and Toluca, among others,” added the CRO.

“Increased access to markets in Mexico is uniquely critical to our region’s economy,” said Airport Authority Interim CEO Joseph Nardone. “Interior Mexico service provides access to key industrial production areas for local automakers, and contributes to the $10.2 billion in economic impact our airport generates here in the Motor City, and throughout the region.”

Aeromexico is DTW’s fourth new carrier to initiate service in less than four years - fifth, including cargo carrier DHL - a significant achievement for the airport. 

“With the ongoing series of mergers in the industry, it has become increasingly more challenging to maintain the number of airlines serving U.S. airports,” said Airport Authority Director of Air Service Development Joe Cambron. “As of January, we will have gained two airlines in the North Terminal and two airlines in the McNamara Terminal in less than a four-year period, which is a nice balance for our customers.”

In 2014, JetBlue and Alaska Airlines began service at DTW, followed by Virgin Atlantic in 2015.  DHL began new cargo service from DTW in October of 2015.  Last year also marked the addition of significant new passenger routes. In June, the first ever daily non-stop service from Detroit to Munich began on Delta. Alaska Airlines doubled service to Seattle for the summer. Frontier added seasonal Ft. Myers and ongoing Phoenix routes, and Spirit added non-stop service to Baltimore and Philadelphia. Southwest also recently announced it will resume its weekend Orlando service in early 2017.  United also announced that in Summer 2017 it will add service to San Francisco which previously was DTW’s only Top 20 market with only a single carrier providing flights.

New service is one of the factors contributing to the spike in DTW’s local passenger traffic numbers, which have set monthly records recently.  In July, according to information from the International Air Transport Association (IATA), 802,368 travelers started or ended their trip in Detroit.  This was the highest single month reported for origination & destination (O&D) traffic numbers ever at DTW, and the first time the airport has celebrated monthly O&D traffic over 800,000.   O&D traffic at DTW is on pace to set an all-time annual calendar year record. 

“These numbers say a lot about the strength of our market, and the comeback of Detroit,” said Cambron. “Our North Terminal has seen double digit gains in enplanements nearly every month this year, and airlines are more receptive to our pitch for new service when the numbers are this strong.”