SMF: Lack of Non Stop to Detroit
 

Does Northwest Airlines have plans to expand service to Sacramento nonstop from its hub at Detroit? All they would need is one inbound and one outbound on an A320 in order to transport SMF pax to connect to Europe and the return from Detroit to connect from Europe! The route has not been flown and the MSP-SMF loads are always incredible. Often times there is a third daily flight in the market all using the A320 aircraft!

Sacramento, can offer Northwest Airlines connections to other airline partners:

Alaska Airlines
Hawaiian Airlines
Horizon Airlines

It is just a thought - One worth inquiring about!

I agree it would be great, but at what cost. It's cheaper by $200 to fly into SMF via MSP from DTW than into SFO direct. Shhhhhhh, let's not tell them.

Tubeman

It's the same situation from several Calif airports, including both SJC and ONT. There used to be a nonstop from SJC but it's been off and on over the past several years.

THE MSP service to SMF is OK
 

I fly into SMF from CMH every 2-3 months and NW has reliable service via MSP.

It is a small NW station and doesn't warrant n/s service from MEM or DTW.

Maybe if traffic increases Nw will add MEm and DTW.

When you live in a spoke city, all you can do is make the connection.

I really wish SJC would get DTW service back. Especially since we are perpetually bombarded by tight connections made tighter by the times when the inbound flight is late...which compounds the issue. DTW is much quicker to get around...

Steve

Just so you know, this spoke city (Sacramento) has nearly 200 flights a day!

Review rhe above statement and then consider this: You have used the term "small". Consider the following Sky Team and associate traffic in the SMF market-

Alaska Airlines to Portland, Seattle
approx 7 daily flights

America West Airlines to Las Vegas, Phoenix
approx 8 daily flights

Continental Airlines to Houston, Newark
approx 4 daily flights

Delta Airlines to Atlanta, Salt Lake City
approx 7 daily flights

Hawaiian Airlines to Honolulu
1 daily flight

Horizon Airlines to Boise, Palm Springs, Portland
approx 6 daily flights

I don't think it's an issue of volume. Sacramento has some very strong population growth, and the SMF-MSP flights tend to be full, but I'm not sure the revenue is there to support it with all the low fares out of SMF.

It's probably the same reason we don't see NW serving OAK, and we probably won't see them starting up OAK service anytime soon.

Non stop service from Sacramento to Detroit has already begun. 5 nights a week and supposed to go to 7 by Summer.

Oops, nevermind. I can't read.