Between July, 2011, and July, 2015, Memphis International Airport (MEM) led the nation in the reduction in flights – 66%. At one point, Delta Air Lines flew 300 daily flights out of MEM. By time that it was announced that there would no longer be a Delta Air Lines hub, there were 96 daily flights.
One result of the hub was that Memphis was #1 in the nation for the highest average airfares in 2011, and in the aftermath of the dehubbing, one of the top priorities by MEM leadership was to reduce the cost of flying. Today, Memphis is ranked #37 in the list of highest average domestic airfares.
The following are airfares with selected cities:
$386.85 – Memphis
$329.20 – New Orleans
$359.74 – Raleigh
$361.53 – St. Louis
$365.65 – Austin
$372.95 – Nashville
$421.00 – Little Rock
$431.73 – Birmingham
$445.20 – Knoxville
Memphis average airfares over time, first quarter of selected years unless noted:
1995 – $362.45
2000 – $385.14
2003 – $382.18
2005 – $368.71
2007 – $414.23
2009 – $398.43
2010 – $432.71
2011 – $453.73
2012 – $519.99
2013 – $478.00
2014 – $448.79
2015 – $443.04, first quarter
2015 – $418.70, second quarter
2015 – $396.17, third quarter
2015 – $386.85, fourth quarter
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We’ve been seeing this news for a while, now. The puzzling thing is that the other DL hubs (ATL, DTW, and MSP) are still hubs, still dominated by DL, and yet they are relatively low-cost flight origins – completely at odds with the argument that being a hub was why it cost so much to fly out of MEM in the DL days. What am I missing?
The fact that MEM still has only 85 total flights per day on all of the airlines flying here is a big part of the problem. Our limited air service really hammers the biz community and keeps prices higher than they should be. Our airport still has way too few flights, especially going to the west. We have only 1 nonstop flight per day to entire west coast. This is horrible for business. Also the new airlines that have started flying here (like the very unsafe and unreliable Allegiant Airlines) only fly 2-3 times per week. Again, bad for business. We have zero nonstops to Boston, San Francisco, San Diego, Seattle, Salt Lake City. No international, not even Toronto. The airlines clearly study their markets and must see very little demand to/from Memphis.
There arent enough flights because there isn’t enough demand from either leisure or business travelers. Memphis is a poor city so the majority of residents can’t afford to fly at any price.
New flights to more cities are badly needed. Atlanta is very expensive all the time. Frontier started one flight to Atlanta but it operates only 3 times a week.
Flying just about anywhere from Memphis requires changing planes and layovers I n one of the major cities like Atlanta or Dallas or Chicago. It often involves backtracking especially heading out west. What used to be a direct nonstop flight now eats up most of a day. I’d rather have higher fares and nonstop flights. Not good because time is money. The airport still has a very long way to go.
We need a lot more flights to more places direct. We recently drove to Nashville for a non stop flight to Seattle on Alaska Airlines for only $450. The airport there was packed