Terrorist Economics 101---Choose a terror target based on the price of a ticket to that location. Sometimes it is that easy...

Even terroists are captive of basic economics. Airplane tickets to more desirable terror targets (Houston, Chicago) were too expensive, so this person decided to target a cheaper, substitute destination---Detroit.  If the price of tickets to one destination increases (or is more expensive), the demand for tickets to another increases--classic definition for Subsitutes.  Now, does that make Detroit an "inferior good" too?  I will let someone else answer that question....

For al-Qaida, Detroit was just the cheapest flight

""When an admitted al-Qaida operative planned his itinerary for a Christmas 2009 airline bombing, he considered launching the strike in the skies above Houston or Chicago, The Associated Press has learned. But tickets were too expensive, so he refocused the mission on a cheaper destination: Detroit....""