N A NUTSHELL

ndrea Fischer Newman was

helping pave the way for the

midfield terminal project

Feb. 24, 2002

OPENING DATE

even before the first

OWNER

TENANTS

bulldozer hit the

ground.

Wayne County

Northwest Airlines and its partners are the pri-
mary tenants. International carriers, including
KLM, British Airways and Lufthansa
Airlines, will have a presence.

The $1.2 billion domestic and interna-

Approximately 30 million passengers per
year will use the facility.

tional terminal at Detroit Metropolitan

Two 200-passenger indoor express
trains can travel the one-mile length
of Concourse A in two-and-a-half
minutes and carry 4,000 passen-
gers per hour. There is also 1.5
miles of moving walkways.

Airport in Romulus opens this weekend

and if anyone can claim to have been the

midwife at its birth, it is Newman.

"Midfield is the reason I came to Northwest
Airlines," said the 43-year-old Newman, Northwest's
senior vice president for government affairs, who
grew up in suburban Detroit.
Newman, a regent of the University of Michigan,
regularly commutes between an office in downtown
Washington, D.C., and her office at Detroit Metro.
She has a home in Ann Arbor and suburban Virginia.
A contract lawyer, Newman was working at the
Detroit-based law firm of Miller, Canfield, Paddock
and Stone when Richard Anderson, then-director of
general counsel for Northwest, hired her. It was
Newman's first corporate job, and she
started working on the midfield proj-
ect in February 1995. Anderson
today is CEO of Minneapolis-based
Northwest, the world's fourth largest
airline.
Wayne County Executive Edward
H. McNamara, for whom the termi-
Edward
nal is named, started talking publicly
McNamara
about a midfield terminal as far back
as 1986.
But ground wasn't broken until 1997.
"The original idea for the terminal was for a much
smaller facility of 19-20 gates," recalled Newman.
The terminal now has 97 gates and will expand to
123. Newman's behind-the-scenes role in the project
consisted mainly of dealing with federal issues, fed-
eral funding, regulatory bodies and local and state
authorities. She worked with Northwest's project
management team, headed by Jim Greenwald.
The project is the first public-private airport part-
nership of its kind, said Fischer. "We know of no
other airport in the world that was actually designed
and built by an airline and owned and paid for by a
government entity.
"I'm most excited about the terminal as a Detroiter
and a Michigander," said Newman. "What this is
going to do is change the image of Detroit. People
who fly in here will see the greatest airport facility in
the world. It will have a tremendous impact on busi-
ness and on people. People will choose to fly to
Detroit. So why not relocate here, too?"
The economic impact to southeast Michigan of the
2-million-square-foot complex (the size of 34 football

Approximately one mile south-
west of the existing passenger
terminal

UGGAGE

CURBSIDE
CHECK-IN

SECURITY
HECKPOINTS

PARKING

4;;..

Eleven domestic and seven
international luggage claim
carousels. Five miles of luggage
conveyor belts.

24 skycap curbside luggage
check-in positions

21, luggage system equipped with
explosive-detection equipment.

Ten-level parking garage with
11,500 spaces. At 3.9 million
square feet, this is the largest sin-
gle parking structure in the world
built at one time.

125,000 square feet of retail space with
more than 80 shops and restaurants

1

900-foot tunnel linking concourses, featur-
ing a synchronized sound and light show. The
glass sculpture that adorns the sides of the tun-
nel was designed by Pontiac glass artist Laurel Fife.

— Alan Abrams

fields) is projected at more than $5 billion annually.
"Andrea is a very tenacious and effective advocate
for Northwest Airlines," McNamara said. "Her
expertise in government relations at the state, local
and federal levels has served her well and has con-
tributed significantly to the success of Northwest."

GOP Access

Active in the Republican Party (she was vice-chair of
the George W. Bush for President campaign and co-
chaired the Bush for President Finance Committee
in Michigan in 2000), she was recently appointed by
the president to the seven-member Federal Services
Impasses Panel. FSIP is the last step in the federal
employee collective bargaining process.

Newman credits Franklin industri-
alist and philanthropist Max Fisher
as her political mentor. She met him
when she was working in the first
Bush White House. Fisher often
takes young Jewish Republicans
under his wing, and he said Newman Max Fisher
is a "very capable, aggressive fund-
raiser in the Republican Party. She
was very helpful and always available
to help out in any campaign."
Last year, Newman played a key role in obtaining
intervention by the White House to avert a poten-
tially damaging strike by Northwest's mechanics.
Her stint at the White House in the 1980s helped
give her access. "It certainly didn't hurt to know

2/22

2002

15

