In the coming days, this blog will be posting resolutions, predictions, or observations by Memphians as they look ahead to the new year.
Scott Brockman, President and CEO, Memphis-Shelby County Airport Authority:
As we start 2019, the Memphis-Shelby County Airport Authority (MSCAA) once again has tremendous optimism for the future. All three of our airports are poised to make great strides in offering efficient operations for our tenant partners while delivering on our promise of a positively MEMorable experience.
Memphis International Airport (MEM) will enter its 5th year of continual growth in both the number of available airline seats and the number passengers filling them. Our relentless pursuit of frequent and affordable air service will once again lead our First Team MEM program in 2019. We will continue to refine our ability to track and define origin and destination (O&D) passenger demand to make the strongest case possible for additional air service. We will advance the development of our Regional Air Service Alliance which brings regional chambers of commerce from our three-state air service area together to assist in defining our business and leisure passenger demand projections. Additional focus and efforts will be put into increasing the number of non-stop destinations, both domestic and international. Our focus will continue on markets in our top 10 unserved destinations, as well as expanded air service to existing routes.
The Concourse B modernization is expected to make great strides during 2019. This project will set the stage for our future as we totally enhance and re-invent the front-door to the mid-south community. While not scheduled to be complete until early in CY 2021, this project will set the stage for the eventual modernization of the terminal building including ticketing and baggage claim. These are clearly amazing times in the history of MEM.
Additionally, our First Team MEM program will continue on our mission to deliver a Positively MEMorable Travel Experience. This mission strives to bring the total commitment of all individuals involved in the passenger experience. We will continue to enhance our connection to the passenger and improve on delivering information and services across every facet of our operation through messaging, training, and overall commitment.
On the air cargo front, we will continue to emphasize and enhance our partnership with FedEx to ensure that MEM takes steps to contribute positively to their ability to continue to grow. The initiation of our $200+million-dollar project on the Consolidated De-icing Facility, scheduled to begin construction in 2019, will greatly improve the operational efficiency for all of our airline partners but especially FedEx as our dominant overnight air transportation operator. This project should start delivering benefits as early as winter 2021. UPS has also indicated a desire to continue their growth in air and ground cargo delivery services which should positively impact job creation and economic impact.
At our two general aviation reliever airports (General DeWitt Spain and Charles W Baker), we will enhance our focus on development and improvement of our services and the delivery of quality enhancements of the physical infrastructure.
Development at General DeWitt Spain, located on North 2nd Street just north of downtown on the Mississippi River, and at Charles W Baker, located in Millington, will be driven by the Master Plan that began in 2018. This is the first ever Master Plan process conducted for our general aviation airports which evaluates our inventory of assets, measures current and projects future demand, and presents development alternatives over various planning activity levels to meet demand. During this process, we will evaluate operating and administrative procedures and processes to ensure that we provide quality services while remaining in compliance with the countless regulations placed on airport operations.
There are just not enough nonstop passenger flights to many vital destinations from MEM. This is a horrible situation for business travelers since many trips require connections and really hurt time and productivity. Corporations hesitate doing business and expanding in a city with such weak air service. This is a huge issue for our business community that is hurting Memphis. Companies will continue to avoid expansion here if this situation continues.
At present there are only about 85 total flights per day on all of the airlines serving Memphis. There are no nonstop flights to cities like Boston, Seattle, San Diego, Salt Lake City, Raleigh/Durham, New Orleans, Kansas City and several more. Traveling to the west coast is a huge issue for corporate fliers since it requires most of a day in transit. Even our service to Los Angeles is compromised with only a single very early am flight on Delta and sporadic service on Allegiant which businessses fliers loathe to fly. One would think MEM could support better passenger service but our airport has had poor results especially over the last two years with nothing but one off and small boutique carriers added.
Our city and region have a weak economy to begin with and it is not being helped by the very poor passenger air services at MEM. Mr Brockman has a lot of air service development work to do in 2019.
The airport authority has a large and highly paid administrative staff. Clearly not enough is being done to grow flights and destinations which are very weak today. Tourism is also hurt by this situation. IMO, too much money is going towards the terminal rehabilitation. Memphis needs more passengers and more flights especially on the major airlines of Delta, American, United and Southwest.
I agree with the comments about so few flights. Memphis Airport still seems to only care about cargo and FedEx. It’s hard to go anywhere from here without making connections and the fares are still more expensive than other cities like Nashville where you have hundreds of flights to everywhere including to London.
As a business flyer I require service to the tech capital of the world Silicon Valley – please work on non-stop SFO service.
I agree with the comment about Delta LAX service. It’s not even 7 day a week service and it gets me back home to MEM at almost 1AM.
Will new E190s and similar allow service to the West Coast with it’s long range and fewer seats?
Passenger demand is the driving force for any air service. As a hub, 75-80% of MEM’s traffic came from transfer passengers, meaning that many of the flights available were almost entirely populated by connecting passengers. Local passengers were able to take advantage of this connectivity. One way to look at it is that Delta not only moved flights, but also moved the majority of the passengers as well with the removal of the hub.
At the same time, there’s plenty of reason for optimism: since the de-hubbing, 6 new airlines have begun service at MEM, and United and American have both increased their service levels, especially American. Airlines set fares rather than the airport, but the average fare is down by $170 since the hub era (hub markets are high fare markets). Most importantly, the number of origin and destination passengers is as high as its ever been, with 4.3 million passengers traveling through MEM this past fiscal year. Year-to-year growth has been running in the 5-8% range.
MEM continues to meet regularly with airlines in an effort to increase service. We meet with most airlines several times a year. It’s not an overnight process – the major airlines move slowly and methodically, while the low cost carriers have more flexibility. Some of the cities mentioned in comments above simply do not have the demand to entice a carrier to start daily nonstop service. And an airline is not going to launch service in the hopes that demand will increase after the fact. That said, increasing West Coast connectivity is a top priority. Boston and San Francisco are the top unserved markets and we continue to pursue service to each city. MEM is growing and the airlines know it, and they have responded to that growth.
In addition to passenger numbers, we’re also boosting our case by working with Memphis Tourism to get valuable tourism and spending data; and with regional Chamber organizations to determine their air service needs. We’re also meeting with local corporations that also have a presence in a desired destination: Indigo, for example has a presence in Boston. This is the type of data that can help build a stronger case if the passenger demand isn’t enough on its own. We agree there’s plenty of work ahead, but progress is being made.
It is sad that Memphis can only warrant and support about 80 or so passenger flights per day. I know the airlines have far more sophisticated planning departments than our airport, chamber or local tourism groups Obviously the demand just isn’t here or else the major carriers would have started flights. While it’s good that the o&d has grown, we have clearly been pretty much stagnant for some time now as the number of flights have been similar. All we seem to get are ultra low cost, unreliable, airlines that usually fly routes 2-3 times per week. This just doesn’t work for business or vacation travel and it continues to take a toll on our business development and tourism.
Bottom line: Why can’t our airport attract more passengers?
I know people in Memphis are envious of everything about Nashville, but they must be doing everything right since BNA is now 4 times bigger than MEM with 16 million passengers in 2018 and multiple nonstop flights practically everywhere.
Bottom line: Why can’t our airport attract more passengers?
Because Memphis does not attract more people. It’s that simple. The only reason Memphis had more flights in the past was because of Delta who had a hub here. Not because Memphis was doing better than now.
I think that is an important fact to remember.
Memphis is moving in the right direction but it is a slow process. And that might be not a bad thing if you have a look at the West Coast where people can’t keep up with the “progress”.
Our company recently invited three people from Sacramento to visit our facility in Memphis. It took them more than 8 hours and two connecting flights to get here. Needless to say they were not impressed. Our firm passes on a good deal of air travel we would normally make because it destroys the productivity of our staff and clients.
One thing to keep in mind is that number of flights daily isn’t a great way to measure capacity. For example, in the hub era, the majority of Delta’s fleet at MEM was 50-seat RJ planes. These planes have largely been phased out over time in favor of larger aircraft. Now, the majority of MEM’s fleet is larger aircraft. If we had the same aircraft mix as we did in 2010, we’d have 145 flights a day based on our available seats. Granted we have far few destinations that before but many of those destinations were not populated with passengers going to and from Memphis.
I’ll reiterate that supply will drive the demand, not vice versa. The airlines don’t add flights and assume or hope that passengers will fill them. They look at current figures on how many passengers are currently connecting to get to that destination, and there are many other factors that play into airline network planning. The Nashville airport lost its hub in the 1990s and it’s taken them quite a bit of time to get where they are. Geography is the primary comparison point, as the Nashville area differs greatly from Memphis in terms of average income, poverty rate and most importantly traveling population. The growth in that traveling population has driven their increase in air service options. If we’re looking at geographic comparisons, Little Rock is roughly the same distance away, has higher average fares than MEM, and less than half the number of destinations.
Robert, as I mentioned earlier, West Coast connectivity is a top priority, and we understand that travel out West can be challenging right now. Fairly recent additions such as Southwest’s service to Denver and American’s service to Phoenix help in that connectivity somewhat, but we’re working to get more. It’s also a challenge because of limited demand to many of these destinations. Right now, there are about 29 passengers a day between Sacramento and Memphis. That’s not enough to get an airline to consider service directly between those cities, but we’ve had a number of conversations with airlines about other California destinations.
It’s probably also important to point out that what’s happening in MEM is not an anomaly. Cities like Cleveland and Pittsburgh have also experienced de-hubbing, and the major airlines are funneling more and more passengers through their major hubs. Other airports of our size face the same types of challenges with connectivity and demand. The good news is that air traffic is increasing nationwide, including at MEM. That bodes well for future air service. We’ll keep working on it.
Glen Thomas is the airport PR person and reading between the lines of his replies I take it that Memphis is not going to see much improvement in the current offering of flights 80-85 flights and limited nonstop destinations. Our city and region don’t have the demand for air travel that other cities have. That is understandable because of lower average incomes and the high poverty rates for a large segment of our population who will never be air travelers. Our business community’s demand for corporate travel just doesn’t match other cities with stronger economies. Importantly too tourism and convention business here is small as we are mostly a drive to destination.
With this base of facts, what more can MEM do to improve demand passenger air services? The MSCAA is in the midst of a big terminal renovation. It also has a large, highly paid staff, including an air service research and development department. What exactly do these folks work on other than to attend conferences and meet with the same airlines, organizations and local companies each year? Where are the opportunities? What is being done to ensure that we fill the seats of the flights we already have? MEM and the MSCAA seem stagnant and getting only small results for air service development. It’s time to get creative.
My business suffers weekly due to non-stop service to SFO
We need non-stop flights to SFO on a real airline
Demand is increasing: On a monthly basis, we’re seeing increases between 5-8% over last year. This past fiscal year, we saw 115,000 more enplanements than the previous fiscal year (which translates to roughly 230,000 passengers, since enplanements refer to a passenger getting on a plane rather than arriving). More O&D passengers are traveling to and from MEM than ever before, including the hub years. What we lost was the transfer passengers, people connecting through Memphis. If seats, destinations and flights were declining, that would be one thing. But they aren’t.
Passenger numbers speak loudest to the airlines. Every airline will tell you that. However, as I mentioned above, we often bring representatives from Memphis Tourism and the Chamber to airline meetings to share information about tourism and economic growth. We’re also able to share tourism spending dollars from different desired cities/destinations in order to complement the passenger numbers. We formed a regional Chamber coalition to determine the business air service needs of our overall region. The dialogue and airline meetings are never-ending. Yes, we attend conferences. We also meet with individual airlines at their headquarters as well. Our discussions include new and existing service and
MEM already has the four largest US airlines in operation: American, Delta, Southwest and United. All but Delta have continued to increase seats, destinations, and larger aircraft over the past few years. Low cost airlines have a different model but they definitely fill a need in our market, particularly for leisure passengers. The airlines manage the marketing and promotion of their flights, and the airport complements those efforts by promoting both new and existing flights and destinations.
Thank you, Glen, for your continued and consistent willingness to have conversations with the public on all things airport-related.
Nashville Metro has a median HH income of about $61,000.
Memphis Metro has a median HH income of about $38,000.
You going to add 120,000 people to Memphis who can afford to fly, Mr. Anonymous? You going to give 120,000 Memphians big raises so they can afford to fly? Because that’s what it will take to be like Nashville.
What would you like to see done that’s not being done, Mr. Anonymous?
Airports don’t set fare prices — airlines do (but airports can work to attract new airlines to increase competition, which brings fares down. MEM has done exactly that and fares *are* down to every destination that Delta doesn’t have a monopoly on).
Airports also don’t establish routes and schedules — airlines do (but airports can lobby for those routes and present the best cases for their addition. MEM does that on a constant basis — with considerable success relative to the market — which you seem to dislike).
What airports *can* do is modernize facilities. MEM is doing that. Airports can improve parking and offer rewards programs for frequent travelers. Again, MEM is doing that. Airports can charge competitive landing fees. MEM is doing that as well. Airports can undertake marketing and communications campaigns to increase awareness and promote local air service. MEM is doing that too. Hell, Glen Thomas himself is on this board interacting politely with your whiny, no-solution-having ass, for crissakes.
So I ask again, what would you do? What are your solutions?
In November, we posted a more in-depth analysis of supply/demand and growth at MEM. While it’s a couple of months old, it touches on some of the discussion here: http://bit.ly/MEMgrowthblog.
It’s really bad that Delta doesn’t even offer a single flight to Salt Lake City which is a big hub for them. That would really help with flights to west coast which have been very poor from MEM for years. Delta needs to adjust the times for its one LAX flight and they need to fly it 7 days per week. I doubt MEM will ever get a nonstop to San Francisco, Seattle or San Diego because we just don’t have the passengers.
It would be tremendously helpful if MEM had several daily flights to Nashville. That would make it possible to connect to nonstop flights from BNA to pretty much everywhere. Ideally that airline would be Southwest which is continuing to move both flights and destinations ffrom Atlanta to Nashville. Last year SWA broke Delta’s monopoly on flights to ATL by starting 5 flights per day ATL-BNA. This competition has resulted in even more passengers and lower fares at BNA.
As Kenneth makes clear, MemphisMSA is poor as hell by comparison, so what do you expect? Worst airport I have flown in and out of in years. Nashville in toto is “flying” past Memphis in too many ways to count. Income is just ONE of the ways Memphis is losing, and has been losing for decades upon decades. It’s 2019 and it’s funny reading about the same old ills of Mammfiss. think about it. By the way what happened to knowitall Urbanut and shady packrat…lol
We are actually quite optimistic that we’ll eventually be able to recruit San Francisco service. With Nashville, Southern Airways Express, which flies out of the Signature Airport next to MEM, has a nonstop flight to Nashville. The major carriers are not going to commit a large aircraft to a destination that has very little demand and is so close geographically. Southwest would not want to commit a 140+ seat aircraft to such a route. In addition, they’ve already reduced their Atlanta service to one time daily.
A couple of years back MEM had some good results with recruiting new flights as a result of the work of Will Livsey who joined from American Airlines. Sadly he left the airport after realizing there wasn’t much more that could be done to advance the flight schedule from where it stands today. From what he shared things will remain stagnant at MEM.
Anyone remember when we were going to be an “AEROTROPOLIS “?
Hi Joan,
Will did an outstanding job for us, and he left for a great opportunity with the aviation data company Diio, which had recently merged with another company. We did indeed have some significant additions while he was here, and our current air service manager has continued that momentum since Will left: 4.88% increase in passengers in 2017, and another 5.32% increase in 2018. In 2018, for the first time since the deb-hubbing, MEM saw increases in passengers, flights and seats year-over-year. Today’s Daily Memphian discussed this: https://www.dailymemphian.com/section/business/article/2624/Airport-posts-increases-in-flights-seats-and-passengers-in-2018.
Glen Thomas — just checked with Southwest. Their BNA-ATL flights operate 5 times per day thru early September which is the latest their schedule now accepts reservations. It has not been reduced to once per day. They told me SWA is moving some flights from ATL to Nashville and these are for connections as well as local traffic to avoid driving even though the distance isn’t huge but the car traffic is bad. We need SWA to do the same at MEM to break up Delta’s expensive monopoly on that route
It’s not surprising how much ignorance is expressed by many of these posts. Everyone has an opinion about air service but few spend any time researching.
If you compare Memphis to other cities with similar populations and/or similar sized economies, you will find similar levels of air service. Go look at the flight schedule for Louisville, almost an identically-sized metro area. You will find that all of their nonstop destinations are also nonstop destinations served out of Memphis, and Louisville lacks any nonstop service to Los Angeles or Phoenix which Memphis has. Their frequency of service is no greater than ours either, as their daily flight counts are in the 65-70 range, lower than Memphis’ 80 or so.
Another comparison can be made to Oklahoma City, a slightly larger metro than Memphis. It also has a lower daily flight count (about 70) and, being about 400 miles west of us, has nonstop service to San Francisco, Seattle and Salt Lake City which we do not have. Yet, OKC has no nonstop service to some east coast cities – Miami, Tampa and (surprisingly) New York – which Memphis does have.
Just because you want a nonstop flight to Sacramento, San Diego or Raleigh doesn’t mean there are enough people flying to/from those cities, every day, to support a single aircraft flying that route in both directions. Is it the Airport Authority’s fault that there aren’t enough travelers in the market to make a flight profitable for an airline? The airport doesn’t make the city go….the city makes the airport go. If you want to see Memphis get more air service, push for policies that improve the underlying economic conditions here. And before you respond that nonstop flights are essential to economic growth, I’d call your attention to the likes of Boise, ID, Des Moines, IA, and OKC which are among the fastest-growing metros in the U.S. None of these places has Memphis beat on air service.
The bottom line about MEM seems clear.
Don’t expect much improvement in our current 80 or so daily passenger flights.
Memphis is just too small (and too poor) to generate the passengers needed to support additional flights.