The airport's shorter 3,712-foot-long crosswinds runway is now expected to close in the next two to 2½ years, officials said. Several years ago, the mayor's team had toyed with the idea of closing the airport permanently and redeveloping the 260 acres as an industrial park. In the future, Duggan said, he hopes the airport can generate money for the city. Some of that increased air traffic would need to be drawn away from Oakland County International Airport in Waterford.ĭetroit now spends $2.7 million a year operate and subsidize the city airport's operations. "We could very conceivably get to that number, given all the growth that’s taken place downtown,” Watt said. Airport Director Jason Watt said Thursday that with the coming improvements and potential future investments, he would like to see the airport back to 100,000 takeoffs and landings a decade from now. The airport saw more than 100,000 annual takeoffs and landings during the 1990s. “I know people are attached to the idea for having commercial service at this airport, but the fact is, you need a 10,000-foot runway for passenger." “Our first meeting with the FAA went extremely well because when we laid out the plan, they said ‘Thank God, you’re no longer pushing the unrealistic plan for commercial aircraft,' ” Duggan said. Since regular passenger service stopped, the airport has operated solely as a base for corporate jets and small private planes. Although the runway was able to accommodate Boeing 737s and occasional 727s during the 1990s, those passenger jets could only operate under significant weight restrictions. Olivet and Gethsemane - precluding necessary runway extensions. The main obstacles to passenger service is the short length of the airport's 5,090-foot primary runway, and the fact it is hemmed in by two cemeteries - Mt. Southwest Airlines pulled out of the airport, formerly known as Detroit City Airport, in 1993, and the last airline to have regular service there, Pro Air, stopped operations in 2000.
However, the plan doesn't envision any return of commercial passenger airline service.
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