Detroit City Airport To See First FAA Investment in 30 Years, Mayor Outlines Plan

Oct. 14—Detroit — City officials and legacy airmen stood on the grounds of the Coleman A. Young International Airport Thursday celebrating the Federal Aviation Administration approval of Detroit's first Airport Layout Plan in 30 years.

The plan is expected to unlock more than $100 million in federal funds over the course of the next 10 years and bring change to the Lasalle College Park and Gratiot-Findlay neighborhoods. The investment includes new hangars; a new control tower; improved taxiways and safety zone; new airport development opportunities; and the return of aerospace high school.

The Detroit Public Schools Community District's Benjamin O. Davis Aerospace Technical High School will return to the renovated main airport terminal to train students as pilots and for other aviation-related careers, including mechanics. It's estimated to open in 2025.

The plan brings the airport into compliance with FAA standards and is the product of a three-year journey, said Jason Watt, Detroit's airport director.

"We are open for business," Watt said Thursday. "I think the plan is beautiful. It gives us a plan for the future as well as it pays a little homage to the past."

Detroit Mayor Mike Duggan said there was no hope to bring commercial aviation for 30 years.

"Today, we are recognizing the FAA and we've unlocked access to $100 million because we're all in agreement on a plan," Duggan said.

For decades, the FAA has required the city to acquire property to the east of the airport — from French to McNichols to Gilbo to Lynch — because the current airport footprint does not provide a sufficient safety zone according to federal standards, Duggan said. City officials recently met with residents in the area to resume the land acquisition process to be completed by next fall.

There are 17 occupied houses left between Gilbo and French Street on the city's northeast side and 53 private vacant lots.

"This neighborhood has deteriorated badly over the years, at no fault of the neighbors ... we are making the owners good faith offers they have a process by which they can accept or challenge," Duggan said.

In the summer 2021, Watt sought to "right-size" its eastside airport with a museum, aviation education and manufacturing, but noted the vision for the future contains the contentious casualty of a shorter, crosswind runway.

The FAA approved decommissioning the Crosswinds Runway, which will free up 80 acres for airport-related development.

The plan is the latest for the city's beleaguered airport, which hasn't had regular service from a commercial airline in close to three decades. For at least the last several years, the airport has been propped up financially by Detroit's general fund.

Watt previously told The Detroit News the city submitted its draft to the FAA in the fall of 2020 and the 20-year plan will be revised every eight to 12 years.

Detroit was recently was awarded an initial grant of $111,000 from the Michigan Department of Transportation's Aeronautics division for partial reimbursement of the cost of developing the airport layout plan.

According to the plan, the new hangars at the airport will include space for executive business aircraft, twin-engine craft and smaller hangars for single-engine planes. Hangars also will include community space for meetings and events. Construction on these new hangars will begin this year.

The new tower will be fully funded by the FAA as part of the bipartisan Infrastructure Investment and Jobs Act. Site selection for the new tower will begin in early 2023, with design taking place in 2024. Construction is expected to be complete in early 2026.

The airport also will make safety improvements to the airfield, including the installation of a new Engineered Material Arresting System (EMAS) at both ends of the runway. This FAA-approved solution has been designed to compensate for the fact that the runway does not have the available real estate for standard 1,000-foot safety areas without impacting the neighboring cemeteries.

In 2012, just prior to the city's bankruptcy, Engine 20 at the airport was decommissioned and firefighting responsibilities for the airport shifted to a nearby fire house. Last year, the city completed a renovation of Engine 20 on the grounds of City Airport is training additional firefighters and is expected to be reactivated in the next year or two.

The airport began a century ago, in 1922 with the 263-acre location was chosen by city officials. Five years later, the first Detroit City terminal was dedicated and the first aircraft landed on Oct. 14, 1927. The airport was the premier station in the Detroit area until 1947, when most of the flights moved to Willow Run airport, followed by the Wayne County Metropolitan Airport in 2017.

Detroit City Airport remains home to many private and corporate jets. The airport saw an almost 40% increase in usage in 2017 with the increase in business downtown and the opening of Little Caesars Arena.

District 3 Councilman Scott Benson said the first airport layout plan is "a long timing, but we're finally here."

"When we talk about critical infrastructure in the city of Detroit, you cannot just buy an international airport. ... The city is finally seeing what can be done and how we can use this infrastructure as an economic development revenue generator for the city and take the city airport off general fund and back on to a revenue generator," Benson said.

Beverly Kindle-Walker, executive director of the Friends of Detroit City Airport, said they along with the Tuskegee Airman have stood through the thin.

"We don't quit because we believe in our young people's opportunity to have a chance in life through the aviation field," she said. "We've been shovel-ready for a long time. We want to see aviation-related industry come here."

At-large Councilman Coleman A. Young II said they are standing on the foundation of success for generations to come.

"I would like to thank the Friends of the City Airport, the Civil Air Patrol, the annual Christmas celebration, Davis Airspace and the Tuskegee Airmen for their continue diligence in keeping that Coleman A. Young International Airport as a place for young Detroiters come to enter the world of flight," Young said. "I know my father would be very proud."

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