As the busy holiday travel season approaches, Detroit Metropolitan Airport (DTW) has made some changes to extend the holiday spirit all season long. Together with Delta Air Lines, the airport team recently worked to develop a Motown Music Tunnel soundtrack — playing now — just in time for Thanksgiving travelers to enjoy. Hits by The Temptations, The Supremes, Stevie Wonder and many other artists are included in the program intended to bring a sense of place to passengers at the airport. The music is choreographed to a creative presentation and light sequencing in the tunnel separating A Concourse and B/C Concourse at the McNamara Terminal. Production was coordinated by Luminative Design LLC.
The airport has also recently installed four new interactive directories in the McNamara Terminal that support eight different languages. The directories allow travelers to communicate with the 49-inch displays via touch screen technology to find specific information, such as shops or restaurants near their departure gate. The concourse-level displays also feature boarding pass scanners which will plot travelers’ paths to their gates.
This holiday season will be busy as we are on pace to serve the most passengers at Detroit Metro Airport this year since 2008,” said Airport Authority Interim CEO Joseph Nardone. “That’s good news for our economy. We recently reopened new runway infrastructure, which increases our arrival and departure capacity, and added new shops and restaurants. Plus, the terminal music and interactive directories will help ease our travelers’ journeys and can be enjoyed by both the seasoned business traveler, as well as those who may be visiting our airport for the first time.”
Additional routes have also arrived since the last holiday season. In the McNamara Terminal, Delta started non-stop service to Munich, Germany and Aeromexico plans to begin non-stop service to Monterrey, Mexico in January. In the North Terminal, Frontier, Spirit and Alaska Airlines all added new routes in 2016. Also in the North Terminal, a new Freedom Center military lounge opened to provide a relaxing area for military members and veterans, along with a new Service Animal Relief Area located near Gate D-17.
New concessions added since last Thanksgiving include a second Be Relax Spa in the McNamara Terminal and — in the center of the terminal’s B/C Concourse — a new Chili’s and Papa Joe’s Market. The airport also recently improved its free terminal Wi-Fi service, increasing the speed and bandwidth, and streamlining the connection process. Travelers connected to the Detroit Airport Wi-Fi hotspot simply need to launch their browser to access blazing internet connectivity speeds of up to 12 Mbps.
