Detroit's city airport opens its first new facility in 60 years

Detroit's city airport marked a milestone last week with the opening of its first new facility in 60 years.

The Avflight FBO complex at Coleman A. Young International Airport opened with a ribbon-cutting on June 3. Mayor Mary Sheffield, Airport Director Jason Watt, and Avflight Senior Vice President of Operations Joe Meszaros were on hand for the ceremony. The complex is the result of a 30-year leasehold the city extended to Avflight, the first long-term lease in the airport's history.

The facility includes a 5,000-square-foot FBO terminal and a 20,000-square-foot heated hangar capable of accommodating large business jets, along with an attached heated indoor parking garage with four vehicle spaces. The terminal operates around the clock and features an open-concept lobby with a fireplace, a pilot's lounge, two private sleep rooms for flight crew, a conference room with seating for six, and private tenant offices.

The airport itself opened on October 14, 1927, and served as Detroit's primary commercial airport through the late 1940s. Wayne County Metropolitan Airport eventually took over the bulk of passenger traffic, and commercial service at Coleman Young Airport continued until 2000. The airport was renamed in honor of Coleman A. Young, Detroit's first African-American mayor and its longest-serving, in 2003.

The Avflight complex is the most visible result of a revitalization push that accelerated in 2022, when the FAA approved Detroit's first Airport Layout Plan in 30 years. That approval opened the path to more than $100 million in federal funding over the next decade for improvements including new hangars, a new control tower, and upgraded taxiways.

Among the planned additions is the Benjamin O. Davis Aerospace Technical High School, which is slated to operate from the renovated main terminal. The school would train students as pilots and for other aviation careers including mechanics, giving Detroit young people a direct pathway into an industry with consistent long-term demand.

Avflight is a fixed-base operator serving general aviation at airports across North America. Its new complex at Coleman Young Airport gives private and corporate aircraft operators a modern facility that competes with regional alternatives and positions the airport to grow its share of business aviation.

Nearly a century after its opening, Coleman Young International Airport is beginning to look like an airport with plans.