Originally Posted by
FWAAA
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.
80% of US population live in the Central and Eastern time zones.
Originally Posted by
FWAAA
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.
The USA is similar to China (or even Japan) in terms of immigration/customs. I-D connection simply hurts. Just as OZ/KE are taking a lot of business from CA/MU for 2nd tier Chinese cites' traffic (and also from JL/NH for FUK traffic), DTW has this disadvantage despite favorable distance/flying time. The I-D hassle makes it not competitive despite proximity of YYZ/ORD/NYC. (For NYC, one can even skip CBSA on AC.)