McNamaraEnhanced

Northwest's WorldGateway facility reaps rewards of $190million investment

Detroit MetropolitanWayne County's four and one halfyear- old McNamara Terminal has recently furthered its quest to provide superior service to customers at the Northwest WorldGateway.

Northwest Airlines' Phase II project to improve and add gates at McNamara began in the Spring of 2004. Two and one-half years and $190 million later, Tom Gunn said the result is "an A-plus."

Gunn, serving as director of design and construction for the Midfield Terminal Project Office, oversaw the project that expanded Concourse B and replaced the existing commuter facilities with a new commuter Concourse C.

In February 2005, Concourse B upped its narrow-body gate count from eight to 17 and added concessions, hold rooms, a play area and restrooms on the gate level. Down below, operational space was added for the airlines at apron level, and in March 2006, additional luggage handling facilities were opened to serve Concourses B and C.

In addition, as a part of Phase II, international gate capacity was raised from 10 to 12 and two escalators were added to the front of the terminal. More recently, Gunn said a 'night and day' transformation has occurred with the construction of the new Concourse C commuter gates.

Transportation Security Officer Linda Gates helps passengers dispose of prohibited items at Bradley International Airport. Photo by Dan Lee.

"The old Concourse C commuter facilities were designed in 1997, when a final determination had not yet been made on which aircraft would be included in Northwest's regional fleet. Thus, the original concourse was designed as a minimal investment, temporary in nature, with a central holdroom and a long loading corridor," Gunn said. "With the expansion of our commuter fleet to include the regional jet instead of the Saab propeller aircraft that we initially had, we built an entire new concourse for our commuter aircraft."

As the Concourse C expansion completed in July 2006, that has all changed. The new, 41-gate Concourse C has individual holdrooms for commuter aircraft "just like our other gates in Concourses A and B where you can wait in the comfort of the light, airy holdroom," Gunn said. "There are concessions, restrooms and all the other services we have throughout the terminal."

Concourse C expanded the original holdroom building with five new pods bridged together with attractive connecting corridors with glass walls and moving sidewalks. Each pod contains holdrooms, restrooms, concessions and other amenities including ATMs and vending machines.

"The new concourse is night and day from where we were before," Gunn said. "We have gone from something that wasn't ideal for the customer, to something I think is the best commuter facility in the country, if not the world. It is a beautiful, pleasant and functional facility."

Also tied into the Phase II expansion was the July 28 opening of a new, 9,000-square-foot WorldClub®.

"Previously there was a 3,500 square-foot World Club in Concourse B," Gunn said of the Northwest-operated private airport lounge. "That was too small with the large gate expansion of Concourses B and C, so we built this brand-new, state-ofthe- art WorldClub."

The old WorldClub is in the process of being demolished and turned over to WCAA to use as concessions space. "When you put all the components of Phase II together, this project has speeded up our international arrivals, it has significantly increased the number of gates, and expanded and upgraded our commuter aircraft capability," Gunn said. "It has provided better service and options for our customers and for our operators as well as more on time arrivals and departures. Most significantly, the quality of our commuter service is now the best."

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