DESTINATIONS — THE US
There’s mo to this town
As Virgin Atlantic launches flights to Detroit, Joanna Booth discovers that the US’s comeback city is on the up
coming American city for direct- flight fun. Must have GSOH and an interest in music.” I know that lonely hearts ads
“E
aren’t the method airlines use to determine where to launch flight routes, but such is the synergy between Virgin Atlantic and its newest US destination, Detroit, that it’s easy to believe these two could fall for one another. Both are plucky underdogs, battling bigger competitors. Both have a name for being cool and creative. They even share a musical background. They also both have much to
gain from the relationship. Detroit gains an extra daily flight from Heathrow – in addition to the existing daily service from Virgin’s
ntrepreneurial and creative airline WLTM up-and-
codeshare partner Delta – which will increase capacity on the route by 45%. Plus there’s the association with Richard Branson’s brand, which is stronger and better known in the UK than the city’s. Virgin will benefit from local traffic to this cutting-edge comeback city, a cradle for entrepreneurship and urban cool shaking off a troubled past. But even more importantly, it’ll give the airline a gateway into another Delta hub, with hundreds of onward flights to other American destinations. This connecting traffic is key. Maria Sebastian, Virgin Atlantic’s vice-president of sales and customer engagement, estimates that three-quarters of the traffic on the route will be connecting. “This flight is part of our strategy to change agents’ view of Virgin
as a point-to-point carrier to a connecting one,” she says. “Within three hours of the Virgin flight landing, there are 65 onward connections, to places such as Nashville, Salt Lake City, New Orleans and Saint Louis.” Sebastian predicts that key
leisure markets for the flight will also include destinations that have direct flights, but where demand outstrips supply, such as Orlando and Las Vegas. However, clients who merely fly
through will be missing out. Detroit is a diamond; still a little rough around the edges, perhaps, but full of fascination. It will pay back in spades any visitor who is willing to see beyond the initially rather rundown look of its downtown core. Persuade clients with a sense of adventure and an interest in history
or music to stop off for a couple of days on their way through, whether they fly on elsewhere or explore the Great Lakes region. It’s no secret that Detroit
has fallen on hard times. Its population, which peaked in the 1950s at 1.8 million, dropped to just 700,000 in 2010. Residents left the area or moved out to the suburbs. It became a city famous for high crime rates and drug problems. In July 2013, the city, $18 million in debt, was forced to file for bankruptcy.
l MOTOR CITY But Detroit wasn’t always an underdog. It was once one of America’s industrial powerhouses. Home to one Henry Ford, who started manufacturing the Model T here in 1908, Detroit had
2 July 2015 —
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