As I reside in the Mississippi Delta, MEM is the closest airport to me that offers decent amount of air service. Therefore, I'd like to raise a few questions on the air service to/from that airport:

1. Who offers the most flight out of MEM? (According to the wiki page, AA has most year-round destinations, but G4 beats it when seasonal flights are counted as well. DL does seem to fly a healthy bunch of flights to ATL).

2. Who has the biggest passenger share out of MEM?

3. Which new destinations/resumptions are possible in the future? (My picks are AS to SEA and/or PDX with E175, DL to BOS and/or SLC with E175/CRJ900 and UA to SFO with A319/A320/B738, ).

4. Which destinations are most at risk of being cut? (My picks are CVG for DL, DEN for F9 and JAX for G4)

5. What are the futures for the seasonal flights out of MEM (like MCO for DL and AUS for WN)?

6. Finally for now, what kind of up-gauging/down-gauging is possible for flights out of MEM in the future? (My picks are for AAto upgrade on any of MIA/LGA/DCA with A319, forcing DL out of the LGA route in the process and UA to remove ERJ145 in favor of CRJ700/E170 on EWR and/or IAH).

Any insights are welcome. Thanks!

On your sixth question, MEM, like a lot of medium-sized markets, is likely to benefit from the drawdown of 50-seaters. I suspect that in 5-7 years, AA and UA will basically be out of the 50-seater business at MEM. BNA is a somewhat different market, but that's definitely the trend here.

CX773W wrote:

1. Who offers the most flight out of MEM? (According to the wiki page, AA has most year-round destinations, but G4 beats it when seasonal flights are counted as well. DL does seem to fly a healthy bunch of flights to ATL).

Check www.flightstats.com, advanced search, by airport, for a Monday or Friday date. Tick the button to eliminate codeshares from the display.

http://www.flightstats.com/go/FlightSta ... yFlight.do

I read on here earlier that AA is number 1 in seats offered out of MEM, maybe even number of flights.

United has been sending 739s to Memphis lately, not sure why, they must just have some slack in the fleet.

TWA772LR wrote:

I read on here earlier that AA is number 1 in seats offered out of MEM, maybe even number of flights.

Can you kindly quote the source for this info? Thanks!

United has been sending 739s to Memphis lately, not sure why, they must just have some slack in the fleet.

Which service does UA send the B739 to MEM? Must be one of DEN or IAH, right?

The Frontier route to Denver will actually be upgraded to an A321 on April 21, from the current A319. The flight has had a consistent load factor of around 90%.

I wonder if DL will announce MEM-JFK, seems like a big hole.

usflyer123 wrote:

I wonder if DL will announce MEM-JFK, seems like a big hole.

How much MEM demand is there for DL's JFK destinations not already served from ATL? There's already MEM-LGA served by both AA and DL, plus MEM-EWR on UA.

MIflyer12 wrote:

usflyer123 wrote:

I wonder if DL will announce MEM-JFK, seems like a big hole.

How much MEM demand is there for DL's JFK destinations not already served from ATL? There's already MEM-LGA served by both AA and DL, plus MEM-EWR on UA.

There are some, plus flying through ATL involves backtracking.

The MEM airport site has some of the information you're looking for. From their statistics page (plus a little arithmetic)

2015 full year
35.5% Delta
28.7% American
17.0% Southwest
13.6% United
3.0% Frontier
1.8% Allegiant
0.3% SeaPort
0.1% Other

Month of November 2016
33.7% Delta
28.8% American
16.9% Southwest
14.0% United
4.1% Allegiant
2.3% Frontier
0.2% GLO

Frontier's success on Denver has me wondering as to why WN hasn't picked it up.

CX773W wrote:

TWA772LR wrote:

I read on here earlier that AA is number 1 in seats offered out of MEM, maybe even number of flights.

Can you kindly quote the source for this info? Thanks!

United has been sending 739s to Memphis lately, not sure why, they must just have some slack in the fleet.

Which service does UA send the B739 to MEM? Must be one of DEN or IAH, right?

I saw it on a.net, and I nt remember what their source was, but I saw the link. I think it was the airport authority in Memphis.

And yes, the 737s were out of Houston.

usflyer123 wrote:

I wonder if DL will announce MEM-JFK, seems like a big hole.

DL could not make that route work even when there was a hub in MEM.

MIflyer12 wrote:

usflyer123 wrote:

I wonder if DL will announce MEM-JFK, seems like a big hole.

How much MEM demand is there for DL's JFK destinations not already served from ATL? There's already MEM-LGA served by both AA and DL, plus MEM-EWR on UA.

Memphis seems well served on NYC and DC.

Could use another Major on LA and Memphis is always stressing that.

Alaska to Seattle and LA would be great. Also of note, Nike has a huge presence in Memphis. I could see Portland over Seattle

Jet Blue to BOS and FFL

Southwest has MCO covered with an assist from Allegiant

United to SFO to service the Williams Sonoma folks seem to be high on the want list

Would love to see Frontier or Southwest on Vegas

Would like to is scheduled and not chartered flights to Cancun and some Bahama love.

Would be neat to see GLO grow into the mid size market provider to Indy, RDU, St. Louis, Pitt. How cheap are used CRJ 200S these days?

As Memphis continues to grow it's highly suppressed O&D market from being a fortress hub for decades I think you'll see more destinations in two to three years.

Cough, cough, there's always Norwegian out there, MEM can tout a catchment of around 10 million within a 41/2 hr drive of the terminal an d without a hub within 51/2hrs. 1x or 2x seasonal summer service to Gatwick or Dublin with proper marketing might deserve at least a go in a couple of years as the O&D continues to grow. And....Especially if Nashville gets BA. I still think it hinges on the River Cruise industry specifically Viking's entry, which has ran smack dab into the antiquated Jones Act. They are still trying to overcome that.
http://wqad.com/2017/02/02/viking-river ... ad-cities/


https://www.bloomberg.com/news/articles ... passengers

During the summer months UA upgraded some of the EWR/MEM flights to a CRJ but they are back to the ERJ-145

tommyy wrote:

During the summer months UA upgraded some of the EWR/MEM flights to a CRJ but they are back to the ERJ-145

From another thread:

UA EWR-MEM SEP 1.8>3 OCT 1.7>3

I suppose the question is size over frequency

usflyer123 wrote:

MIflyer12 wrote:

usflyer123 wrote:

I wonder if DL will announce MEM-JFK, seems like a big hole.

How much MEM demand is there for DL's JFK destinations not already served from ATL? There's already MEM-LGA served by both AA and DL, plus MEM-EWR on UA.

There are some, plus flying through ATL involves backtracking.

Cite a source for PDEW MEM to those specific destinations, and show how flying through ATL is serious backtracking for those destinations. Great Circle Mapper will show a gap in your understanding of geography taught in middle schools.

MIflyer12 wrote:

usflyer123 wrote:

MIflyer12 wrote:

How much MEM demand is there for DL's JFK destinations not already served from ATL? There's already MEM-LGA served by both AA and DL, plus MEM-EWR on UA.

There are some, plus flying through ATL involves backtracking.

Cite a source for PDEW MEM to those specific destinations, and show how flying through ATL is serious backtracking for those destinations. Great Circle Mapper will show a gap in your understanding of geography taught in middle schools.

You introduced the serious qualifier. ATL is south of MEM and well off the great circle route for MEM-Europe. It is, indeed, a backtrack.

as noted above JFK didnt work when MEM was a hub, doubtful you will ever see it come back. DL is fine with routing people through ATL or DTW to Europe. If they need to double connect I am sure the O&D numbers are probably small enough to those type of destinations anyways and not enough to warrant a JFK flight. They can just double connect in AMS or CDG.

MIflyer12 wrote:

usflyer123 wrote:

MIflyer12 wrote:

How much MEM demand is there for DL's JFK destinations not already served from ATL? There's already MEM-LGA served by both AA and DL, plus MEM-EWR on UA.

There are some, plus flying through ATL involves backtracking.

Cite a source for PDEW MEM to those specific destinations, and show how flying through ATL is serious backtracking for those destinations. Great Circle Mapper will show a gap in your understanding of geography taught in middle schools.

I really think you are the one between us who lacks knowledge in simple geography. ALL routes from MEM to Europe via ATL involves backtracking.

usflyer123 wrote:

I really think you are the one between us who lacks knowledge in simple geography. ALL routes from MEM to Europe via ATL involves backtracking.

They are greater than zero circuitry, but Atlanta is east of Memphis so that is not actually "backtracking" which is defined as going the wrong way (West in this case) before going the right direction (East in this case).

MEM-DFW-CDG is backtracking, MEM-ATL-CDG is not.

Traveling via ATL would be faster than JFK to Europe from MEM. "Backtracking" via ATL requires an additional insignificant 100 +/- miles (in terms of actual flight distance, it'd be a toss-up in terms of which routing was consistently shorter) whereas JFK requires time for transfers & NYC traffic. It's a really, really silly argument.

Not to mention that ATL is the largest connecting point for many northeastern communities to the southwest, despite its geographic challenges vs. DTW & MSP -- if people are willing to travel 300-500 additional miles on a ~2,300 mile domestic itinerary, you'd think they'd blink an eye for 100 over 4,500 miles?

Did some double checking and those are MEM's numbers through November. They do not include December. They may actually sniff or surpass 4,000,000 for the year. If they continue the growth seen over the past couple of years as fares continue to fall, Memphis may sniff 6,000,000 around 2025

Rdh3e wrote:

usflyer123 wrote:

I really think you are the one between us who lacks knowledge in simple geography. ALL routes from MEM to Europe via ATL involves backtracking.

They are greater than zero circuitry, but Atlanta is east of Memphis so that is not actually "backtracking" which is defined as going the wrong way (West in this case) before going the right direction (East in this case).

MEM-DFW-CDG is backtracking, MEM-ATL-CDG is not.

It's actually going south to go north. It's a(n inconsequential, accepted by thousands of passengers per day) backtrack.

Cubsrule wrote:

It's actually going south to go north. It's a(n inconsequential, accepted by thousands of passengers per day) backtrack.

http://www.gcmap.com/mapui?P=MEM-CDG,+MEM-ATL-CDG

It's quite obviously not going "backwards". While not exactly on the direct route, flying to ATL is still getting you closer to your destination (ATL-Europe is shorter than MEM-Europe), therefore you are going closer, ie toward, your destination. Your attempt to say otherwise is asinine.

Rdh3e wrote:

Cubsrule wrote:

It's actually going south to go north. It's a(n inconsequential, accepted by thousands of passengers per day) backtrack.

http://www.gcmap.com/mapui?P=MEM-CDG,+MEM-ATL-CDG

It's quite obviously not going "backwards". While not exactly on the direct route, flying to ATL is still getting you closer to your destination (ATL-Europe is shorter than MEM-Europe), therefore you are going closer, ie toward, your destination. Your attempt to say otherwise is asinine.

I'm not sure why we need emojis or cursing. It's 60 degrees or so the wrong way (MEM-CDG great circle heading is 045-ish, MEM-ATL is 110-ish). Not backwards, but also not the right direction.

Wonder if WN doing BNA-MEM would ever be feasible.

southwest1675 wrote:

Wonder if WN doing BNA-MEM would ever be feasible.

On a Boeing,? No. Too short a drive.

This where I think GLO could develop in connecting mid sized markets with directs. (St. Louis, Raleigh Durham, INDY, Pit, Cleveland) They have been a bit quiet

WaywardMemphian wrote:

southwest1675 wrote:

Wonder if WN doing BNA-MEM would ever be feasible.

On a Boeing,? No. Too short a drive.

This where I think GLO could develop in connecting mid sized markets with directs. (St. Louis, Raleigh Durham, INDY, Pit, Cleveland) They have been a bit quiet

While I don't necessarily disagree with you in general, MEM-BNA is probably too short and easy a drive even for GLO. With the 40/240/Sam Cooper interchange much improved, it's pretty reliably a sub-3 hour drive, and BNA is on the wrong side of town for most folks.

The completion of the west leg of 840 also hurt the case for a flight by making the drive from Memphis to Williamson County much easier.

CX773W wrote:

4. Which destinations are most at risk of being cut? (My picks are CVG for DL, DEN for F9 and JAX for G4)

While MEM-CVG is going from 2x/day to 1x/day, its actually being upgraded from a CRJ-200 to a CRJ-900. So while the seat count decreased, the route is frankly in a much better position than it previously was. The switch was part of Delta's recent expansion at CVG to increase the number of business seats and add larger aircraft. I think this move removes all DL CRJ-200's from MEM!

The token seasonal sat only nonstop to Orlando was a 200 but I think the short run this summer is on a 900 as well.

Was amazing watching them concede that route to Southwes and then the steady growth it's seeing with WN.

Airventure737 wrote:

The Frontier route to Denver will actually be upgraded to an A321 on April 21, from the current A319. The flight has had a consistent load factor of around 90%.

It's going from 150 seat aircraft to a 230 seat aircraft?! That's a pretty big jump!

usflyguy wrote:

Airventure737 wrote:

The Frontier route to Denver will actually be upgraded to an A321 on April 21, from the current A319. The flight has had a consistent load factor of around 90%.

It's going from 150 seat aircraft to a 230 seat aircraft?! That's a pretty big jump!

I wonder if they are going to aggressively price connecting flights to the coast and Vegas.

If they get close to filling that up consistently you figure WN would have to jump in on that with a Denver direct.

I'm curious if anyone thinks that WN will someday soon enter the MEM-ATL market. I think this is the largest route from MEM in terms of passenger numbers and there is room enough for a second carrier. Chicago has 3 carriers on the route, and the NYC metro also has 3 carriers. It's just a matter if WN wants to take on the big bird in ATL. Thoughts?

The ME3 can start a hub here and maybe Delta will come crawling back.

FlyUSAir wrote:

The ME3 can start a hub here and maybe Delta will come crawling back.

I care less nor anyone else I know for it to ever be a hub again and the oppressive prices it brought down on a decidedly blue collar, grit and grind kinda of town where folks drove to Little Rock, Jackson and Nashville to fly.

I want to see Memphis at around 6 million total passengers as an O&D airport with 2025 as a target for it.

I can envision a day where the freight folks might dabble in passenger service as a way to expand shipping options on the package side. Memphis could certainly stand to benefit from such a venture.

I'm also not under any illusion that Memphis will ever have daily Transatlantic or TransPacific flights but a seasonal , 1 or 2 times a week flight on highly efficient equipment might actually work. Right now, I can book a Norwegian flight from NYC to Paris CDG for 225 one way for a June flight. Yes, Think for around 500 bucks R/T a market could exist for a flight like that. I base that onethe Memphis 4hr drive catchment area and it's spacing between hubs that give it a bit of an advantage in the "Spacing" game that might help it avoid fare wars as opposed to cranking up a similar service from Nashville would with CVG and ATL and even CLT being much closer. Besides I see Nashville wanting something like BA over Norwegian. Memphis seems like a low cost kinda town.

I repeat myself a bit but all I want to see the most as a patron of the airport is:

Jet Blue to Boston and Fort Lauderdale

Alaska to Portland or Seattle, preferably Seattle

American or Southwest or Alaska or Jet Blue to LA

United to San Fran or Southwest to Oakland.

I know business folk like my Brother would like to see some type of service like OneJet or Glo to Indy, Pitt, Cleveland,ect, ect, ect. His company recently opened an Indy office.

IAHWorldflyer wrote:

I'm curious if anyone thinks that WN will someday soon enter the MEM-ATL market. I think this is the largest route from MEM in terms of passenger numbers and there is room enough for a second carrier. Chicago has 3 carriers on the route, and the NYC metro also has 3 carriers. It's just a matter if WN wants to take on the big bird in ATL. Thoughts?

In short, I highly doubt it. WN was in the MEM-ATL market via the AirTran merger. However, when WN downsized (or right-sized) ATL, MEM was cut. Since then Frontier tried MEM-ATL but their schedule just didn't work. If I recall correctly, they operated one flight, five days a week, not flying on Wednesday and Saturday, with times that weren't conducive to same day business trips. Then there was Southern Airways Express offering service between MEM and Dekalb/Peachtree. They too, only flew five days a week, sitting out Saturday and Sunday. Their times were somewhat better and they did offer more than one daily flight. I looked at booking them once, but the lack of amenities on the Atlanta end forced me to look elsewhere.

In my opinion, it would be extremely difficult for anyone to challenge DL in the MEM-ATL market, Whoever decided to try would need to offer more than one flight a day that would allow for same day business trips. Additionally, they would need to offer service seven days a week. But you can rest assured that DL wouldn't give up market share easily.

As a side note, during the late 80's and early 90's, at least four carriers at any given time offered MEM-ATL service: Delta, Eastern, Air Atlanta, and Republic/Northwest

TheGov wrote:

IAHWorldflyer wrote:

I'm curious if anyone thinks that WN will someday soon enter the MEM-ATL market. I think this is the largest route from MEM in terms of passenger numbers and there is room enough for a second carrier. Chicago has 3 carriers on the route, and the NYC metro also has 3 carriers. It's just a matter if WN wants to take on the big bird in ATL. Thoughts?

In short, I highly doubt it. WN was in the MEM-ATL market via the AirTran merger. However, when WN downsized (or right-sized) ATL, MEM was cut. Since then Frontier tried MEM-ATL but their schedule just didn't work. If I recall correctly, they operated one flight, five days a week, not flying on Wednesday and Saturday, with times that weren't conducive to same day business trips. Then there was Southern Airways Express offering service between MEM and Dekalb/Peachtree. They too, only flew five days a week, sitting out Saturday and Sunday. Their times were somewhat better and they did offer more than one daily flight. I looked at booking them once, but the lack of amenities on the Atlanta end forced me to look elsewhere.

In my opinion, it would be extremely difficult for anyone to challenge DL in the MEM-ATL market, Whoever decided to try would need to offer more than one flight a day that would allow for same day business trips. Additionally, they would need to offer service seven days a week. But you can rest assured that DL wouldn't give up market share easily.

As a side note, during the late 80's and early 90's, at least four carriers at any given time offered MEM-ATL service: Delta, Eastern, Air Atlanta, and Republic/Northwest

Frontier sold those ATL fares at 49 bucks. Frontier also tried Dallas then dropped it right before WN announced it was going to offer DAL and dropped it. Draw your own conclusions. I figured you would have seen a Frontier to Vegas flight by now.


Reflecting back on the Northwest days, if Northwest had survived and thus the Memphis hub had survived, would it have seen more TATL ouside of AMS with the 787s that Delta delayed and ditched.

WaywardMemphian wrote:

Reflecting back on the Northwest days, if Northwest had survived and thus the Memphis hub had survived, would it have seen more TATL ouside of AMS with the 787s that Delta delayed and ditched.

Based on DL saying MEM-CDG was a possibility, I have no doubt that NW would have added routes to CDG by now for SkyTeam connections. I also think LHR would have been added. I think LHR/CDG/AMS are probably the only TATL flights I could have seen NW add from Memphis.

This came out today
http://www.bizjournals.com/memphis/news ... tions.html

FFL stands out considering the only direct is G4 at 2x weekly, if I were JetBlue.....

cvgComair wrote:

WaywardMemphian wrote:

Reflecting back on the Northwest days, if Northwest had survived and thus the Memphis hub had survived, would it have seen more TATL ouside of AMS with the 787s that Delta delayed and ditched.

Based on DL saying MEM-CDG was a possibility, I have no doubt that NW would have added routes to CDG by now for SkyTeam connections. I also think LHR would have been added. I think LHR/CDG/AMS are probably the only TATL flights I could have seen NW add from Memphis.

Northwest was also looking at MEM-NRT with the 787.

Allegiant announced they are making the LAX (twice weekly) year round once it resumes in June

Growth at MEM is strong!

From their Facebook:
Memphis International Airport - MEM saw nearly 18,500 more passenger enplanements (passengers boarding an aircraft) in August 2017 compared to August 2016, an increase of 11.7%! Enplanements are up by more than 30,000 in Fiscal Year 2018.

Man, this is a two'fer week for MEM
First the DHL facility that should see more cargo into MEM and now Amazon:

https://www.memphisdailynews.com/news/2 ... urces-say/

I keep saying either FedEx or Amazon needs to start regional passenger flying to drastically expand same day deliverly by using some sort of combi plane like the ATR and Q400 have.

WaywardMemphian wrote:

Man, this is a two'fer week for MEM
First the DHL facility that should see more cargo into MEM and now Amazon:

https://www.memphisdailynews.com/news/2 ... urces-say/

I keep saying either FedEx or Amazon needs to start regional passenger flying to drastically expand same day deliverly by using some sort of combi plane like the ATR and Q400 have.

The DHL facility probably isn't going to affect the MEM airport.

I don't think the combi thing is going to ever happen. Carriage of passengers just opens up a Pandora's Box of potential issues that cargo carriers don't have to deal with. Same-day delivery just isn't lucrative enough on the scale needed to offset the headache. That being said, FX already offers same-day delivery in most larger metros, but only for intra-metro service. Expediting freight on passenger airlines used to be done all the time but it is no longer done with the TSA known shipper policies.

I do think this Amazon facility will force some much-needed pressure on FedEx to either increase pay or hours or both. FX is heavily part-time and loses line employees very frequently to Amazon everywhere they open up nearby warehouses as Amazon offers full-time shifts. Being really the only sizable player in town has enabled FX to get away with paying poorly at the hub compared to other markets where they are not the 800lb gorilla. Now perhaps that will change.

Article with lots of pics of the A concourse redo to make way for Delta to join Southwest on that side while B concourse is redone.

https://www.bizjournals.com/memphis/new ... -with.html

That's some work for just two years worth of use.

United is putting a 319 on one of the EWR flights. So, that's an upgrade to mainline.

Oct traffic was up over 6%

Please continue your discussion and to post your updates in the thread for 2018:

viewtopic.php?f=3&t=1384071

Thread will be locked.