American couldn’t pull it off with Nashville/Raleigh-Durham. US Airways failed with the Philadelphia/ Baltimore-Washington/Reagan Washington National triumvirate. And in the upper Midwest, Delta is downsizing Cincinnati, this in deference to Detroit.
American couldn’t pull it off with Nashville/Raleigh-Durham. US Airways failed with the Philadelphia/ Baltimore-Washington/Reagan Washington National triumvirate. And in the upper Midwest, Delta is downsizing Cincinnati, this in deference to Detroit. (Note that Washington National and Philly survived as US hubs. BWI did not.)
All this begs the question: Will Memphis International, a scant 330 miles from Delta’s headquarters in Atlanta, remain a hub now that DL has merged with NW? Larry Cox mulls the answer for a millisecond: “The so-called ‘experts’ have been predicting our demise for the past 15 years,” says the president and CEO of the Memphis-Shelby County Airport Authority, “and we’re still here.”
Indeed.
According to Airports Council International, MEM is the 31st busiest airport on the planet in terms of takeoffs and landings — eclipsing such luminaries at Washington Dulles, Rome and Seattle/Tacoma. The reason, of course, is FedEx. Memphis possesses a dual personality. By day it’s a mild-mannered passenger airport for the most part, dispatching A320s, regional jets and such to places such as Orlando and Shreveport. Beginning about 11 p.m., however, the place begins to populate with purplish widebodies, inbound from around the world. That’s why MEM ranks so high.
In terms of passengers carried, the airport didn’t crack the Top 50 in 2008, according to ACI.
Memphis handled some 10.5 million flyers last year. Cox says by the time 2009’s recessionary figures are tallied, it should be “from 5 percent to 7 percent lower than that.”
Ninety percent of the passenger traffic at the airport is Delta’s. In all, MEM sports nonstop service to about 95 destinations — all but five of them domestic. The airport’s plum passenger run is Amsterdam, a flight that originated back in 1995 with KLM. Cox calls the route “hugely successful” and believes that success sets the stage for future international forays — once the recession fades. Among the targets of opportunity: London and Paris — even Tokyo, although Cox thinks a Narita nonstop will have to await the advent of the 2.5-year delayed Boeing 787 Dreamliner.
Fare Weather
Bolstering Cox’s belief that the best is yet to come is Memphis’ location in the Central Time Zone, nestled up against the Father of Waters, the Mississippi. “The reason FedEx is in Memphis is not because Elvis Presley once lived here,” he says. “We have very good weather, only four or four-and-a-half inches of snow per year, and we don’t have a lot of fog.” All that augurs well for getting airplanes off on time. “We have very, very few delays.”
Taxi time from Memphis’ mid-field terminal out to the runway averages six to 10 minutes. Try that at Atlanta on a hot ‘n heavy Friday afternoon. Security wait time averages a bit less than four minutes.
While wait times may be miniscule, the same doesn’t necessarily hold for airfares. According to the Department of Transportation, MEM’s average domestic airfare for the year ending in March 2009 was $197.19. The relatively high rate is a function of a couple of things: domination by Delta, and the fact that the airport sports but one low-cost carrier. AirTran has a token presence at the airport. Southwest isn’t there; nor is JetBlue.
“The fares on Delta to and from Memphis tend to be higher,” concedes Cox. “You look at any airport where there’s a dominant carrier and you’re going to see higher fares.”
Somewhat mitigating those fares is the fact that Memphis is one of a handful of decently-sized airports in the country that doesn’t levy a Passenger Facility Charge. Having FedEx in the fold helps. “Most of our improvements over the past 20 years have been on the airfield,” says Cox. “So we didn’t [think] it right to have the passenger carriers ask their customers pay for those facilities when the cargo carrier represents about 80 percent of the activity in landing weight.”
While airfield infrastructure is critical to making FedEx’s hub work, Memphis’ passenger terminal isn’t shabby. It’s sanely-sized, and nicely appointed. Five years ago Memphis invested $30 million to revamp is concessions — food, beverage, and shopping. The result is an airport that’s a decidedly decent dwelling space. If you’re in search of some of the best barbeque in the country, there’s no need to egress the airport. Just ease up to one of the eateries on the airside, beyond security. Interstate BBQ and Corky’s are great. The latter is a local institution.
Terminal Velocity
Man does not live by barbeque alone. There’s a conference room at Memphis International. It’s between the A and B terminals, near the A security checkpoint. The business center is in the B ticketing lobby. This is all assuming you can’t use the Delta/Northwest lounge on the B/C Connector.
Memphis has Wi-Fi. But, for now at least, you have to pay Boingo to access it. The rate is $3.99 for two hours, and $7.95 for 24 hours. Cox says that when the provider’s current contract expires, Memphis intends “to take it over ourselves and provide it free.”
The taxi fare from downtown to the airport runs about $30. No bargain there, and there is no rapid rail — although the idea has been studied. That’s the bad news. The good news is that Memphis International is building a $150 ground transportation center, a center that’s walkable from the terminal.
At places such as Dallas/Fort Worth, Bush Houston Intercontinental, and Baltimore/Washington International you have to hop on a bus to shuttle to such centers. Beginning in 2012, simply take the moving sidewalk from the MEM terminal to rent a car. The upper levels of the structure will be reserved for economy parking.
Like we said: location.
If you have any doubt that the folks who operate this unpretentious gem of an airline hub think it will weather the Delta/Northwest merger, go to the Y connector out on the airside part of the terminal. Under the rotunda is arrayed a sparkling terrazzo floor, with an expansive inlaid map of North America. “And right in the middle,” says Larry Cox, “it shows Memphis, Tennessee with a musical note.” He’s betting that note remains a sweet one.