Originally Posted by
SJC ORD LDR
DTW seems really far to the east to have an operation to Asia. Most of the country is closer to Asia than DTW is. For me, it would be a long flight east to go back west. I never understood the attraction of DTW for going to Asia. For Europe it makes much more sense.
Actually, since the great circle path for DTW-HKG is just slightly westward of due north (heading of 342 degrees, just 18 degrees away from straight up), DTW is a logical on-line connection point for just about everything from MSP to STL to DFW to HOU and everything east of any of those cities. And that encompasses the vast majority of the US population.
DTW is one of the largest northern metro areas in the US, and the farther north you go, the closer you get to HKG. What wouldn't make much sense would be a nonstop from ATL or CLT or MIA or DFW or HOU or PHX or other southern cities. Those hubs would require signficant southerly backtracking for much of the US population.
California has six nonstops to HKG between UA and CX. CX has two more from YVR. The western part of the US appears to be pretty well covered.
DL has focused its Asian nonstops primarily from DTW, and for good reason. It's a good hub location with pretty good O&D and lots of DL connections. The HKG flight just didn't work, but I disagree that failure is due to the location of DTW.