Detroit, MI
Frontier bids to expand in former Spirit space at Detroit Metro Airport
Travelers thoughts on Spirit Airlines closing Detroit Metro Airport
With only yellow kiosks left at the former Spirit Airlines counter, travelers pass by the closed and vacated airlines at Warren Evans Terminal
Romulus — Frontier Airlines is positioning itself to expand at Detroit Metropolitan Airport following Spirit Airlines’ exit, as airlines adjust routes to absorb passengers displaced by the collapse of the low-cost carrier.
The Wayne County Airport Authority confirmed that the Denver-based Frontier has formally requested access to Spirit Airlines’ former terminal space at the Warren Evans Terminal, though officials declined to say how many gates the airline is seeking or the proposed lease terms.
“It would be premature to share any details about ongoing discussions or potential lease agreements with Frontier or any other airline,” Cortez Strickland, spokesperson for the airport authority, wrote in an email.
Frontier, meanwhile, said it has already begun increasing service from Detroit and expects additional growth beginning this summer.
In a statement, the carrier said it has restored nonstop service from Detroit to Fort Lauderdale and Las Vegas, routes it had previously operated before pausing them. The airline is evaluating additional changes across its network.
“Our Network Planning team is continuing to evaluate our overall route network to determine future route additions as well, and we anticipate increased capacity from DTW starting in July and through the winter,” Rob Harris, spokesman for Frontier, said in an email.
Frontier’s request comes as aviation experts say Spirit Airlines’ exit from Detroit Metro Airport will reshuffle demand among carriers already serving the market. Those airlines include Delta Air Lines, Frontier Airlines, American Airlines, United Airlines and Southwest Airlines. Travel agents also say airfares have been climbing, with fewer low-cost options and higher fuel costs contributing to costlier tickets for travelers.
“Spirit is gone, however, the market is still over there …” said Selim Ozyurek, assistant professor at Western Michigan University’s College of Aviation. “The other airlines are going to be taking advantage of the existing demand.”
The void created by Spirit Airlines
Spirit previously operated from six gates in the Evans Terminal at Detroit Metro Airport. The airport authority said all former Spirit routes are being served by other airlines operating at the airport. However, the loss leaves a gap in Detroit’s low-cost air travel market.
“The airline was a low-cost carrier with a DTW-based crew and a maintenance hangar onsite,” Strickland said. “While it may be difficult to identify an exact replacement with an identical operational model, all routes formerly operated by Spirit are currently being serviced by other carriers at DTW. Also, our Air Service Development team regularly researches opportunities to increase routes and attract new airlines to DTW.”
Frontier said maintaining a strong presence in Detroit is central to its low-fare strategy, and that competition from budget carriers helps keep air fares down.
“The presence of low-fare carriers in a market forces competition among airlines and reduces the cost of flying for consumers overall,” Harris said.
Travel agents say airfares are elevated compared to last year, driven by a mix of fewer low-cost options and higher fuel costs.
“It’s hard to say if it’s the absolute departure of Spirit, or if it’s a combination of the departure of Spirit and the fuel prices,” said Maggie Burnside, certified travel adviser with Fly Lansing Travel. “I would say it’s probably a good combo of both. They’re differently higher this year than they have been in previous years.”
Burnside said, for example, a Detroit to Cancun flight would have been in the $450-$550 range via Spirit, but a basic economy ticket with airlines like United or American is about $900, up from about $700-$800 on those carriers last year. Delta Air Lines fares are also higher.
“Delta is positioning themselves that way as the premier airline,” said Liz Andrews, certified travel consultant with Fly Lansing Travel. “Not that they don’t want that competition, but they want to give you more for your tickets than just throwing you on the plane.”
David Fishman, president of Cadillac Travel Group, said fares that were commonly in the $300-$400 range last summer are now often running between $600 and $800. He said airlines have reduced the number of flights on some routes to keep planes full and operations profitable.
“The traveling public needs to know that because of less flights, air fares will stay high, as well as obviously because of the fuel prices, and not replacing some of the flights as of yet for (Spirit) being out of the market,” he said.
Frank Holmes, CEO and CIO of U.S. Global Investors, said “the airplanes are still quite packed,” and that discount carriers like Frontier help support competition.
While Frontier is noted as one carrier seeking additional space, airport officials say they are also in discussions with other airlines within the Evans Terminal. They declined to identify them.
The airport authority would also not provide a timeline for when Spirit’s former gates could be permanently reassigned, citing ongoing bankruptcy proceedings.
“WCAA utilizes gates as needed and will seek to lease those gates once the bankruptcy process concludes,” Strickland said.
How the airport is adjusting financially
Despite the loss of a carrier, the airport authority said it does not expect a financial loss from Spirit’s departure. The airline paid the airport authority about $26 million last year through terminal rents, landing fees and other charges, according to the airport authority.
“We routinely adjust to changing operational and industry conditions to meet revenue requirements and maintain financial stability,” Stickland said. “During our mid-year adjustment process, we will reduce expenses wherever possible and increase rates and charges paid by the airlines.”
Ozyurek said airport charges are tied to passenger and flight activity, including operations, terminal use and passenger volumes. He said passenger facility charges are based on the number of boarding and deplaning passengers, which means those fees continue as passengers shift to other airlines serving Detroit Metro.
Delta Air Lines is expected to absorb much of Spirit’s former route demand in Detroit, while Frontier Airlines expands service on overlapping markets due to its existing operations at the airport, said Gerald Cook, an adjunct professor at Embry-Riddle Aeronautical University Worldwide Campus. The adjustment is likely to come through changes such as frequency increases and schedule shifts.
“I don’t think you’re going to see any major disruption or major change in Detroit,” he said.
Southwest Airlines said its current schedule is already optimized through the end of the year across its network based on demand, aircraft availability, staffing and operational reliability. That limits its ability to quickly add new flights, airline officials said.
The carrier said any expansion in one market would require reductions elsewhere, though it will continue monitoring Detroit Metro Airport for potential growth.
Avelo Airlines spokesperson Courtney Goff said the airline doesn’t have immediate plans to expand at Detroit Metro, but if they see an opportunity to expand, they’ll look into those options.
“We’re always communicating with our airport partners on new opportunities,” Goff wrote in an email. “We just extended our schedule through the winter holiday season with seasonal returns for our DTW routes.”
Avelo has many of its existing routes already overlapping with Spirit’s former network but operating from more convenient secondary airports, Goff wrote. Instead of adding former Spirit routes, Avelo said it plans to increase flight frequency on current routes where demand supports it.
Travelers interviewed recently at Detroit Metro say they’re keeping an open mind about alternatives to Spirit.
Gabby Schriver, a 33-year-old from Oxford, was heading to Dallas May 22 with her sister and infant son for her childhood best friend’s wedding. She tried out Frontier Airlines for the first time as the ticket came as part of a bundled travel package booked through a third party.
Schriver said she likely would have avoided flying Spirit Airlines had it still been operating.
“I guess I’m not surprised,” Schriver said of Spirit’s shutdown. “A lot of people have always complained about Spirit. I’ve not had the best experiences.”
She said she remains open to trying Frontier, though.
“Maybe Frontier will be great,” she said. “I’ve just never flown it.”
Schriver said she frequently flies Allegiant Airlines out of Flint Bishop Airport because of the convenience of smaller airports.
“We’ve always had a great experience with them,” she said.
If cost were not a factor, Schriver said Delta would remain her top choice.
“I just feel safe when I fly Delta for some reason, and the staff has always been nice,” she said.
Jay Granberry was traveling to Dallas to visit family recently via Frontier. The Saginaw native, now living in Metro Detroit, said budget airlines like Spirit and Frontier have been options for him in the past.
“If I couldn’t get Southwest or American … I would get Frontier or Spirit,” he said. “I would get Spirit, because it’s cheaper, but now that Spirit isn’t in the conversation anymore, Frontier is definitely probably going to be one of the more frequented ones.”
Granberry said he was surprised Spirit Airlines closed because the carrier had been around for so long.
“Spirit was not terrible, contrary to popular belief, in my opinion,” he said.
He said he would like to see United or American expand at Detroit Metro Airport, favoring each for “price and experience.”
“You get the middle, a medium of both,” he said. “You’re not sacrificing one for the other like a lot of times.”
Despite issues with Frontier in the past regarding longer layovers, Granberry said he is giving the airline another try as a low-cost replacement for Spirit.
“Let’s just hope Frontier lives up to them as far as their reputation,” he said.
cwilliams@detroitnews.com
Detroit, MI
Detroit sisters accused of stabbing restaurant worker after wrong food order
NEWYou can now listen to Fox News articles!
Two Detroit sisters, including one who was nine months pregnant at the time, are accused of stabbing a worker at a Detroit chicken restaurant during a wrong-order dispute, with prosecutors alleging one sister stabbed the employee and that the women attempted to throw hot grease, pans and other items at her.
Brianna and Kierianna Long now face several charges in connection with the May 30 incident, including assault with intent to murder, assault with intent to do great bodily harm less than murder and assault with a dangerous weapon, according to local reports. Both women have pleaded not guilty.
The two sisters entered the restaurant, ran behind the counter and attacked the 23-year-old employee after they were given a wrong order, prosecutors said, according to the outlet.
MICHIGAN ATHLETE LURED BY SNAPCHAT MESSAGE BEFORE BEING SHOT, DUMPED IN LAKE WHILE STILL ALIVE
Brianna and Kierianna Long face several charges, including assault with intent to murder, assault with intent to do great bodily harm less than murder and assault with a dangerous weapon. (Detroit Police)
The sisters threw items at the employee, chased her through the restaurant, hit her with pots and pans, attempted to throw hot grease on her head and threatened to kill her, according to prosecutors.
“I’m going to kill you,” one of the sisters allegedly said during the encounter, WDIV reported.
The employee was then stabbed in the stomach with a knife by Kierianna, prosecutors said.
The sisters fled the scene after the attack but were eventually taken into custody by police. (Raymond Boyd/Getty Images)
The injured employee had to be taken to the hospital for surgery after she ran out of the restaurant and hid inside a stranger’s vehicle while calling for help.
Brianna, 29, and Kierianna, 26, fled the scene after the attack but were eventually arrested by police.
Defense attorneys attempted to dispute the allegations in court, arguing that the employee triggered the assault by saying that she did not “give a f—” about the food order error before throwing items including knives first during the incident.
ARMY VETERAN DIES MONTHS AFTER DOORDASH DRIVER ALLEGEDLY SUCKER PUNCHED HIM OVER SPEEDING COMPLAINT
The sisters allegedly threw items at the employee, chased her through the restaurant, hit her with pots and pans, attempted to throw hot grease on her head and threatened to kill her. (iStock)
CLICK HERE TO DOWNLOAD THE FOX NEWS APP
Brianna, who was 9 months pregnant at the time of the incident, gave birth four days before her arraignment, her attorney said, ClickonDetroit reported. She pleaded with the judge by saying that she was innocent and had a 4-day-old baby at home.
Both sisters pleaded not guilty to the charges. Brianna was held on a $25,000 cash bond and Kierianna was held on a $100,000 cash bond.
Detroit, MI
Vernors fans tickled to celebrate 160 years of iconic pop at Detroit event
Detroit ― Metro Detroiters lifted up small paper cups of Vernors in Eastern Market on Sunday and celebrated the 160th anniversary of the iconic Michigan beverage.
Dozens of people crowded a block on Riopelle Street in Detroit to participate in the toast. After a countdown, they cheered and drank the fizzy drink.
The toast was part of the Vernors 160th Anniversary Celebration, which was organized by the Vernor’s Ginger Ale Collector’s Club and held in Eastern Market. Hundreds attended the event, where Vernor’s lovers had the chance to savor Vernors ice cream and floats and sample a cream ale drink. Other activities included buying 160th anniversary T-shirts and getting Vernors temporary tattoos.
Some donned green Vernors shirts or wore gnome-shaped hats made out of paper.
Bridgette Exell of Plymouth said she and her husband came to the event because they love Vernors and they wanted to see the different foods being offered at the celebration.
“I’ve tried a lot of different ginger ales over the years,” she said, “and I think the kind of spicy bite of Vernors is top notch.”
She was waiting in a long line to get Vernors ice cream, which she had never tried before.
Celebrating Vernors history
James Vernor created Vernors and it was first served to the public in 1866, according to the Detroit Historical Society.
Keith Wunderlich of Troy and founder of the Vernor’s Ginger Ale Collector’s Club said many people came to the event in “a pouring rainstorm” to celebrate Vernors, which he thinks is “just absolutely fantastic.”
“It … says a lot,” he said.
Wunderlich said his parents dated at the Vernors soda fountain in Detroit in the 1940s. He said many people of his generation remember seeing the large neon sign on Woodward Avenue at the Vernors plant.
“It’s always part of our life,” he said of Vernors.
The “‘deliciously different’ ginger ale” saw its last bottle “filled and capped at the Woodward Avenue plant on Jan. 18, 1985,” historicdetroit.org said, thereby leaving the city despite plans to reopen elsewhere.
The drink is now owned by Keurig Dr Pepper. The company donated the Vernors that Wunderlich and others served at the celebration.
Several Eastern Market businesses participated in the event. Wunderlich said Detroit City Distillery offered adult beverages made with Vernors, and Marrow in the Market had a Vernors brunch.
Vernors fans celebrate the drink
Wunderlich and other event organizers made samples of cream ale. The drink had been served at Vernors soda fountains, he said. The drink on Sunday consisted of two parts Vernors to one part sweet cream.
Ecorse resident Michele Carmona and her daughter, Lettecia Carmona, sampled the drink.
“It was good,” Lettecia Carmona said.
Michele Carmona, who was wearing a Vernors green shirt with a gnome on it, said she likes Vernors, especially when it’s part of a Boston cooler.
When you drink Vernors, you get a “sensational bubble feeling,” she said.
Milk & Froth Ice Cream created a Vernors ice cream for the event, and it served ice cream and floats from a food truck. Vernors ice cream hasn’t been served since the 1980s, Wunderlich said.
“It was something that some of us that are a little older are familiar with,” said Andy Scheel of Shelby Township.
He said it tastes “pretty similar” to the ice cream of the past.
asnabes@detroitnews.com
Detroit, MI
Review: Ambitious chef’s second restaurant brings promise to Midtown
Medusa, new Midtown Detroit restaurant, focuses on Sicilian cuisine
Medusa, a Midtown Detroit restaurant from SheWolf owner Anthony Lombardo, focuses on Sicilian cuisine.
The menu at Medusa, the Sicilian restaurant that opened in Midtown in January, begins with sfincione.
In Sicily, sfincione is a common street food, the spongy bread topped with bright, acidic tomatoes, a blend of anchovies and cheese and crunchy breadcrumbs, handed off everywhere in Palermo from the side of the road to bakeries and cafes. At Medusa, the bread is delivered as a small, puffy round pie cut into quarters. A crispy, crackly blanket of breadcrumbs peppered with minty oregano covers a thin layer of briny anchovy and cheese like paper defeating a rock in a game of rock, paper scissors.
As far as the Detroiters in the room are concerned, the sfincione at Medusa could very well be a personal pan of Detroit-style pizza.
As a starter, the sfincione here is a grounding element. With its charred caciocavallo, or Southern Italian cheese curds, draped over the edge of the pie, the bread is so akin to the city’s trademark pizza that it brings the diner into the world of Sicilian cuisine with a familiar usher.
It’s unlikely a coincidental move by the profoundly deliberate chef-owner Anthony Lombardo, whose first restaurant, SheWolf, earned national acclaim.
At Medusa, Lombardo successfully reinterprets the polyglot history of Sicilian cuisine approachably, and with an air of fun.
The decidedly Italian design flair, the hip-hop beats, an exacting Italian menu — Medusa is Sicily, it’s Detroit, it’s Lombardo.
Like SheWolf, which opened in the same neighborhood in 2018, Medusa is deeply personal for Lombardo. Whereas SheWolf draws from his adventures in Rome, the swerve into Sicilian territory is a culinary journeythrough his paternal heritage. And with Medusa, you get a fuller picture of Lombardo’s perspective, aesthetic and culinary acumen.
This is what a second act does for a chef. A second location shouldn’t replicate the last, nor should it abandon its defining elements. When done well, it builds a portfolio that will eventually offer diners insight into the chef’s distinguished point of view. The threads that connect SheWolf and Medusa make Lombardo’s values clear: Lombardo is an ambitious chef, capable of executing his culinary vision.
Under Italian rule since the 1800s, Sicily, the fertile island at the heart of the Mediterranean Sea, has a long history under the dominion of various empires. Medusa tells that history on its menu like a land acknowledgement, offering cultural context for the ingredients and the dishes served.
The presence of olive oil and honey in Sicilian cuisine is a culinary imprint of Greek rule over Sicily before the start of the common era. In contrast to the dairy-forward northern region of Italy where butter is king, olive oil is the dominant fat in the South — and in turn, at Medusa. Swipe tears of hot panelle, or chickpea fritters, through a creamy, earthy aioli made of whipped olive oil and punctuatedwith a salt flake pupil. The panelle are golden, crispy on the outside and porridge-like inside, and drizzled with a sweet, sticky Calabrian honey.
Roman rule introduced items like fish sauce, the menu explains, which shows up as a funky, umami garum dressing to punch up mild slices of raw bluefin tuna, while Norman rule in the 11th century brought equally sharp ingredients, such as capers and anchovies. The island’s position in the Mediterranean Sea made fresh fish and seafood ripe pairings for these bold flavors. At Medusa, a seafood salad of grilled octopus, shrimp and calamari is tossed in a pungent caper dressing and small hunks of lamb belly are pierced with a skewer as a street food starter. The lamb belly is unctuous and both spicy and verdant with heat from a harissa marinade and notes of earth from fresh rosemary needles.
Most evident in Sicilian cuisine is the influence of Arab and Islamic rule. Bright bursts of citrus splash savory dishes with fresh oranges and lemon juice, buttery nuts, like pistachios and almonds and pine nuts dazzle rice dishes and the advent of couscous enters the arena.
Here, crispy bites of arancini are glorious amalgamations of the island’s historical past. The flavor of saffron rice is like a mist of perfume to your palate, floral almost, but balanced with a ragu of beef and pork and sweet English peas.
Pesce spada, Italian for swordfish, is the true chicken of the sea. The dense seared steak could almost be mistaken for a tender chicken breast, the perimeter of its surface a golden-brown outline. The fish sits on a spread of chickpeas in a harissa stew which rests on a bed of creamy labneh. The fish is mild, the stew a more complex delight, with heat traveling up the sides of your tongue to your ears to your throat. By the time the spice hits your brows, the sensations quell. The dish is a menu highlight, the chickpeas cooked just enough to call them done while maintaining a nutty crunch, the tomatoes ever present and labneh incorporated for a considerate cooling effect.
The dish is flawless. It evidences Lombardo’s ability to ace a balancing act. He juggles spicy, salty, and sweet elements with creamy and crunchy textures without dropping a single ball.
Couscous at Medusa may surprise you. The menu has been updated to specify its super-fine texture. True to the style you’d experience in Sicily or Morocco, the couscous here is unlike the chewy pearls that typify Israeli and Lebanese varieties. Above the surface of the dish, the tiny granules are fluffy and light, and the bits that sink beneath the savory lobster broth are like grainy breadcrumbs sopping up stew. Swimming in a bowl of chubby seared scallops, meaty shrimp and velvety mussels, the couscous is a complete meal rather than a starchy side.
If you can nab a corner booth at Medusa, you’ll have the best view in the house.
The snug row of tables in your direct sightline calls acute attention to the large-stemmed glasses filled with rosy nonalcoholic spritzes, resting on nearly every table like sleeping flamingos. You can reach out and touch the expansive sgraffito mural that lines the wall behind you, feeling the texture of the artwork that was etched and hand-painted by local artists. You might watch bartenders pouring negronis and popping tops on Peronis behind the center bar that anchors the restaurant, or the servers stopping to fill tiny cups with pulls of robust espresso.
Enjoy a touch of whimsy as servers push a cannoli cart around the dining room, filling handmade shells tableside with creamy ricotta, and lift your gaze to the patio doors, where white fringe parasols shade bistro tables and chairs. If you take pleasure in people-watching, visit on a weekend when reservations are booked solid and the room is filled. You’ll hear everything, too. The music, the chatter, the clinking and scraping, the glass crashing and subsequent sweeping.
From this vantage point, you’ll begin to notice the ways Lombardo’s restaurants converge. You’ll see that Medusa shares the same modern and playful design elements that stand out at SheWolf, like a sleek center bar that anchors the space, touches of color and beautifully mirrored bathrooms where candles glow and flower arrangements cascade for the effect of a floral funhouse. And mythological references point to the chef’s inner child as he weaves thrilling stories of creatures and gorgons through his work.
It becomes abundantly clear that Lombardo approaches his food programs with the ambition of a purist, taking a scratch concept to new heights.
SheWolf’s defining quality is the pastificio, where pasta is not just handmade, but the grains for each pasta variety are hand-milled. The pastificio has grown to include pastas made for Medusa, such as springy bucatini tangled in salty grilled sardines and black currants. For Medusa, Lombardo invested in custom machinery to steam couscous to order, an expense he deemed worthy for what he hopes will become a staple at the new restaurant.
Another identifying quality becoming a throughline of Lombardo’s craft — the art of al dente. Pleasantly firm pastas are as consistent at SheWolf as they are at Medusa. So are crunchy chickpeas that precisely miss the line of undercooked by a mere instinctual hair.
These are elements that will become expected of Lombardo. Like an artist’s repertoire.
The backdrop to the chef’s progression is the growth and development of Detroit’s Midtown neighborhood. In 2025, Lombardo set out to transform what was formerly Smith and Co., later Vigilante Kitchen and Bar and, for a short stint, Epiphany Nain Rouge Kitchen; into something entirely his own. The space was stripped of any semblance to its past lives, completing a cul-de-sac where a shared patio connects Medusa with neighbors Barcade and Roar Brewing Co.
The complex is a stone’s throw from SheWolf, where Lombardo got his Detroit start.
The two restaurants are a part of a rising gastronomic tide, lifting Midtown into a culinary destination.
Medusa, 644 Selden St., Detroit. 313-798-3498; medusa-detroit.com
-
Finance1 minute agoWhy Your Idle Cash Is Losing Value and How to Secure Much Higher Yields in 2026
-
Fitness7 minutes agoAdding Exercise to GLP‑1 Therapy Improves Long-Term Benefits, Multinational Study Finds – Health & Fitness Association
-
Movie Reviews17 minutes agoMovie Review – Unidentified (2025)
-
World29 minutes agoVideo: Russian Attack on Kyiv Damages Historic Orthodox Cathedral
-
News31 minutes agoRead Will Scharf’s Confidential Insurrection Act Memo
-
Politics37 minutes agoRead Will Scharf’s Confidential Habeas Corpus Memo
-
Lifestyle1 hour agoIf you plan to catch up on reading this summer, start with these 3 books
-
Technology1 hour agoFox is buying Roku