Metro Airport asks travelers' help to gain Detroit-Dubai air service



12:54 PM, April 23, 2012 |



By Ellen Creager

Detroit Free Press Travel Writer


Vote for Dubai!

Detroit Metro Airport is using social media to pressure either Emirates Airlines or Delta Air Lines to add nonstop service from Detroit to Dubai, United Arab Emirates.


Hoping air traveler pleas will grab airlines’ attention, Metro officials have set up an online petition for service, arguing 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 many Michiganders and auto-related business travelers need to fly.


Travelers can go to Detroit to Dubai dot com to sign the petition.


“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 from Atlanta to Dubai.


A Dubai destination would serve metro Detroit’s Iraqi, Lebanese and Yemeni communities as well as business and leisure travelers headed to the Middle East and beyond, Cambron said. Although many in metro Detroit have family back in Lebanon, “we can’t get nonstops to Beirut at this point because of security requirements,” he said.


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.


Emirates flies huge aircraft, including the Airbus A380, but Metro could get certification for any plane it used, Metro spokesman Michael Conway said.


"We put the petition up already. We have not marketed it all. We accumulated 100 signatures just from people happening to run into it. it’s a good sign," he said.