Metro Airport (code KDTW), officially known as Detroit Metropolitan Wayne County Airport, is located in Romulus. Delta Airlines and Spirit Airlines have hubs here. The facility is ranked among the top-ten airports in North America in takeoffs and landings per year, and among the top fifteen in the United States in overall passenger traffic.
History
Plans were first unveiled for the commercial-based hub in 1927, with the first land acquisition taking place in 1928. Landings first took place along the new airstrip in February 1930. The facility was known at the time as Wayne County Airport.
Serving as a base for the Air National Guard since its beginning, the facility was taken over by the United States Army in the early 1940s as a staging base for heavy bombers that would be sent to Europe to help fight World War II. The Army held the airport until 1944, by which time an expansion of the facilities were announced.
Renamed Detroit-Wayne Major Airport in 1947, it functioned in much the same way today's Willow Run Airport does. This would change in 1957 as American Airlines signed on to become Detroit Wayne-Major's first general passenger airline, moving operations from Willow Run.
By 1958, the airport as currently known rapidly began to take shape. Five airlines; American, Allegheny, Northwest Orient, Pan Am and British Overseas had moved to the Romulus site, which received its current official name of Detroit Metropolitan Wayne County Airport. The first of the new era of terminal buildings was ushered in with the opening of the L.C. Smith Terminal. Further terminals were added in 1966 (Davey Terminal) and 1974 (Berry International Terminal).
The new era of construction would then begin in 1990 with the opening of the new control tower at the airport's center. The Davey Terminal, under-sized, would be replaced by the McNamara Terminal in 2002, and the outmoded Smith Terminal was mothballed in favor of the new North Terminal in 2008. The Berry Terminal remains today, though unused.
