Detroit using online petition for nonstop flight to Dubai

[DieselDragRacer]

Vote for Dubai!


Detroit Metro Airport is using an online petition to sway Emirates Airlines or Delta Air Lines to add nonstop service from Detroit to Dubai, United Arab Emirates.


Employing an increasingly popular and persuasive method used by airports to stand out from the crowd in enticing airlines to add new routes, Metro officials have set up a petition that the public can sign, www.detroit2dubai.com.


Airport officials argue that the largest Arab-American population outside the Middle East lives in metro Detroit. Dubai also is a direct gateway to 17 destinations in India -- a spot to which many Michiganders and auto-related business travelers need to fly.


"We've actually had meetings with the airlines already to talk to them about the possibility of service, but obviously I'd rather have a large number of people sign the petition," said Joe Cambron, director of air service development. These days, routes are not set up just based on backroom discussions, he said: "Airlines like to see people responding to online petitions."


One reason for urgency is that Detroit is trying to get nonstop service to Dubai before Chicago does. Right now, the Midwest has no nonstop passenger service to Dubai.


Emirates is growing quickly and poised to become the largest airline in the world within three years. It flies nonstop from Dubai to Houston, Dallas, New York JFK, Seattle, San Francisco and Los Angeles. It adds Washington Dulles in September.


Delta already flies nonstop to Dubai from Atlanta.


The chance to link Detroit more quickly with India also is important for airport growth because it's the largest country in terms of airline traffic to which Metro Airport has no nonstop service. About 240 people fly back and forth between Detroit and India daily, Cambron said.

 

[shon7]

watch Delta fight this tooth and nail because it knows it cannot compete with Emirates on service or cost and will lose a ton of fliers especially the business travellers to EK.

 

[8sugarsugar]

I'll be glad to see Delta get a little competition against their wide bodies out of DTW. Hope emirates invades ATL too.

 

[UM#1]

Emirates is 1000X nicer ride to Dubai from the States than Delta. I've suffered through that Delta ATL-DBX many times...

 

[JettBoii]

Funnel more radical muslims into the states.

 

[Varmint]

Funnel more radical muslims into the states.

Or funnel more Mormon missionaries into India, Africa, Asia....etc. Granted, they are radical in a different way.

 

[Raoul Duke]

Detroit is such a crap hole city

 

[SWA/FO]

Detroit is such a crap hole city

Sez.. the dude who has never been there. :cartman:

 

[IAHERJ]

Old neighbor in Texas used to fly to Dubai once a month. Preferred UAL through IAD as Emirates coach was not as comfortable. His company would not pay for business but UAL would upgrade him from time to time. Emirates 1st class is wonderful but if you have to ride in coach, not so much according to the oil community in IAH. Too bad CAL never could get the widebodies to compete with Quatar or Emirates

 

[Jake Dawg]

I agree that competition is good. But the playing field should be similar. Note I said similar not the same. I hope we do add service DTW-DBX. But Emirates has many state sponsored cost benefits that DL does not and will not. Emirates in DBX is paying way below what everyone is is paying for facilities and FUEL so the state is funding their investment. This creates a very uneven playing field for anybody competing with Emirates. So should we ask for more competition? I think not considering a very uneven playing field. Unless pilot groups in the US and Europe get a handle on the middle east aviation problem (significant cost advantage relative to the rest of the world), we're all going to have some real problems down the road. Scope anyone?

Dawg

I'll be glad to see Delta get a little competition against their wide bodies out of DTW. Hope emirates invades ATL too.