Detroit Metropolitan, the airport of choice for many Southwestern Ontario travellers, has become a lot more welcoming.

One of the most significant changes is in Concourse C, the one used for Northwest Skylink departures to places like London, Kitchener and Hamilton.

Using Concourse C used to be an unpleasant and uncomfortable experience. The main holding area had minimal facilities. And once you reached your departure gate there were none, not even a toilet, and so few seats that travellers either stood or sat on the floor.

Now there are 35 new gates, six sets of restrooms, 10 banks of public telephones, seven elevators, five sets of moving walkways, three vending areas, two sets of escalators, ATMs and five banks of flight information display monitors. Heck, there's even a martini bar!

A cramped and gloomy gate area has been replaced with a two-level concourse with porcelain tiles on walls, terrazzo and carpeted flooring, stainless steel columns, curved metal ceilings and moving walkways.

Detroit Metro is still far from perfect. Passengers arriving from Canada have to first clear U.S. customs and immigration.

Should the mob on one of Northwest's 747s from Asia get there ahead of you, a tight connection becomes even more worrisome.

Certain connections involve a lot of walking. The main McNamara Terminal, opened in 2002, is 1.6 km long.

If your next gate is near either end, you can use an overhead train. But it has only three stations, so you may still have a bit of a hike.

If your gate is in either Concourse B or C, you have to walk through what I call the "psychedelic" tunnel, which has lights that pulsate to background music.

Still to come at Detroit Metro is the North Terminal, expected to open in 2008. It will have 26 gates and will replace the outmoded Berry and Smith Terminals.

Among the airlines it will serve are Air Canada, American, Air Tran, Frontier, Southwest, Spirit, United US Airways/America West, and USA 3000. International carriers BA, Lufthansa and Royal Jordanian will move to the McNamara Terminal, joining Northwest and its SkyTeam partners.

None of this activity comes too soon. Detroit Metro is the main hub for Northwest and in 2005 ranked 20th in the world in terms of total passengers -- 36,389,290. Toronto's Pearson, by comparison, was 29th with nearly 30 million passengers. (Atlanta, Chicago and London Heathrow were the three busiest).

WHAT'S NEW

- Two around-the-world trips departing from Toronto in a privately chartered jet are being offered this fall through Travel Guild Inc. Canada. The southern hemisphere trip, Oct. 2-31, will cross the South Pacific and the Indian and south Atlantic oceans. The one in the northern hemisphere, Nov. 3-30, will range from the jungle temples of Angkor Wat to the Taj Mahal. The trips are priced at $25,000 and $27,000 respectively. Contact privatejetworldtour.com or 1-800-268-4284.

- Carnival Cruise Lines will charge as little as $799 US per person for the transatlantic crossing its new Carnival Freedom will make from Rome to Miami in the fall of 2007. Carnival Freedom will debut with a series of 12-day Mediterranean cruises that include the line's first-ever visits to the Greek Isles and Turkey. That program runs March 14 to Oct. 16, 2007. See a travel agent for details.

- A treasure hunt through Quebec City called the Champlain Prophecy is open to individual or team competition. Participants try to solve enigmas listed in a guidebook. Phone 418-687-6096 or visit avacture.com.