Detroit's ratings soar in year since Midfield opening ROMULUS, Mich. (AP) =97 Long reviled as one of the nation's least=20 passenger-friendly airports because of its cramped, dreary layout and=20 substandard amenities, Detroit Metropolitan Airport's reputation has=20 soared. "It's a very good gateway for Detroit," John Flack, 46, a physician= =20 from Orchard Lake, said recently after stepping off a flight from Chicago.= =20 "I don't see much to really pick at. I think this is a fantastic airport."= =20 Metro was tied with Minneapolis and Phoenix for second place among the=20 nation's 13 biggest airports in an October customer satisfaction survey=20 conducted by J.D. Power & Associates. Las Vegas' McCarran International=20 Airport topped the list. In J.D. Power's 2000 survey, Metro was rated last= =20 among 26 major and medium-sized U.S. airports, said Michael Taylor, senior= =20 director of travel services for the market research firm. "Detroit deserves= =20 a pat on the back for turning around what was one of the worst airports in= =20 the world," Taylor said. The engine driving Metro skyward in the ratings is= =20 the one-year-old Edward H. McNamara Terminal at Northwest WorldGateway,=20 commonly called the Midfield Terminal. "This terminal is light years ahead of the old terminal," Flack said. Northwest's dingy and dim old home, the J.M. Davey Terminal, was built in=20 1966, when the airport's passenger count was one-tenth of what it was in=20 2001. "You had to walk forever and it was very crowded," airport spokesman= =20 Mike Conway said. It's replacement =97 the $1.2-billion, 97-gate Midfield terminal =97 opened= =20 Feb. 24, 2002. It is the largest hub for Northwest Airlines, which leases=20 Midfield from Wayne County and oversaw its design and construction. About=20 75 percent of the nearly 32.5 million passengers who used Metro last year=20 flew Northwest or its commuter affiliates. One of them was Jeanne Yarussi,= =20 63, a retiree from Ithaca, N.Y., who flew in to Midfield the second day it= =20 was open. "It was such a hubbub that day. It was nuts," she said, recalling= =20 non-functioning restrooms and a mix-up at the gates that left her without=20 her luggage. But, Yarussi said: "They delivered it to my daughter's house=20 that night. They were very nice." Midfield's wider taxiways and extra=20 gates, and the addition of a sixth runway in late 1999, boosted Metro's=20 on-time rate to 10th among the 32 busiest U.S. airports, according to the=20 Department of Transportation. "J.D. Power says that when a customer's flight departs or arrives on time,= =20 they are much more positive in rating all aspects of their airport=20 experience," Conway said. The direct access to the airport from two=20 different interstate highways has added to the favorable feedback, he said.= =20 "The primary impact, in our opinion, has been on the passengers," said Jim= =20 Greenwald, vice president of facilities and airport affairs for Northwest.= =20 "It's easy to get around, it's easy to go from end to end, it's easy to=20 find what you need and ... it's probably the easiest=20 domestic-to-international connection in the country." In one sense, the new= =20 terminal is a reward for Northwest travelers who endured the discomforts of= =20 the pre-Midfield Metro, Taylor said. "When you're spending $1.2 billion on= =20 a new terminal, you're not going to spend much on existing facilities. ...= =20 (Northwest) had to have it," the J.D. Power researcher said. "They couldn't= =20 have kept operating the old terminal the way they did." Within weeks of=20 Midfield's opening, crews were demolishing most of the concourses at the=20 37-year-old Davey Terminal. It is to be rebuilt with a linear 29-gate=20 concourse hugging its airfield side, but the project has been slowed by the= =20 post-Sept. 11 drop in air travel and a legal challenge to the authority's=20 powers by the county Board of Commissioners. The adjacent L.C. Smith=20 Terminal will be demolished when the Davey project is completed in 2006 or= =20 2007. All domestic airlines other than Northwest and Continental, and their= =20 commuter affiliates, will fly out of Davey. Despite Metro's popularity and efficiency, that hasn't eased the pain felt= =20 by Northwest and the rest of the airline industry in the wake of the terror= =20 attacks. Northwest, the nation's fourth-largest carrier, lost $488 million= =20 in the fourth quarter of 2002. It has temporarily laid off more than 630=20 pilots and plans to furlough another 60 this spring. The independent Wayne= =20 County Airport Authority, seeking to reduce Metro's $215 million operating= =20 budget while providing relief to airlines, dismissed eight high-ranking=20 managers in November after cutting landing fees by 4.6 percent. Southwest=20 alone expects its Metro passenger load to increase by 15 percent in 2006.=20 Negotiations with other airlines already operating at Metro, and with=20 others not now serving it, are continuing, Conway said. The attacks=20 prompted last-minute tweaking that delayed Midfield's opening date by two=20 months. The number of security checkpoints was expanded from 16 to 21 and=20 went to 24 when an adjoining, 400-room Westin hotel opened in December=20 2002. About 970 Transportation Security Administration passenger and=20 baggage screeners now work at Metro, after private security firms were=20 phased out beginning last summer. Scott Fairchild, 31, an Ann Arbor home=20 builder waiting to pick up his wife, said he understood the need for=20 tighter security. "I'd much rather meet her at the gate," Fairchild said of his wife, who is= =20 blind. "But what are you going to do after 9-11?" Some of the 77 food, beverage and retail outlets planned for Midfield=20 didn't open as planned, in part because of the airline industry slowdown=20 and security rules limiting concourse access to ticketed passengers. But=20 the terminal now has more than 60 such outlets, including a Motown=20 Harley-Davidson retail store and a CNBC News Detroit newsstand. Three more= =20 restaurants are scheduled to open in May, Conway said. Midfield will play a= =20 part in Northwest's economic retrenchment, Greenwald said. "We have a very productive capital investment that is serving our=20 passengers very well (and) will serve us well into the future," he said.=20 "We expect to survive this difficulty and when we do survive it, we expect= =20 it will be partially because of Midfield. "I don't think we would do it any different. It just seems to us that it=20 was the kind of fit we were looking for." *************************************************** The owner of Roger's Trinbago Site/TnTisland.com Roj (Roger James) escape email mailto:ejames@escape.ca Trinbago site: www.tntisland.com Carib Brass Ctn site www.tntisland.com/caribbeanbrassconnection/ Steel Expressions www.mts.net/~ejames/se/ Site of the Week: http://www.dbombo.net/muddyangels/ TnT Webdirectory: http://search.co.tt *********************************************************