Be happy OMA isn’t present day Memphis-

[Omaha Cowboy]

The latest “ranking” listing Eppley as a “less than adequate airport” from a customer satisfaction standpoint.. Brings me to post this article about the shrinking of the once proud Memphis, Tennessee airport..

From The NY Times May 23rd, 2018 piece:

“Memphis used to be a regular transfer stop for business and leisure travelers, when Northwest Airlines was the dominant carrier and the airport was marketed as a “hassle-free” hub. But then Delta Air Lines gobbled up Northwest, and decided it only needed one hub in the South, its own base in Atlanta. The decision cost Memphis almost two-thirds of its passengers: From more than 11 million in 2007, the last full year before the merger announcement, the count fell to about four million last year.

That has sometimes left the spacious three-concourse terminal looking staggeringly deserted, with most of its gates unused. The airport’s solution is to spend $219 million on what it is calling a modernization effort: closing and renovating Concourse B, and then consolidating operations there and essentially mothballing Concourses A and C.

The plan is as much a push toward the future as it is an admission that Memphis — the sign at the entrance still calls it “America’s Aerotropolis” — is a lesser passenger magnet these days than Omaha or Columbus, Ohio, or even the second airport serving Dallas.“..

The complete NY Times story link-

https://www.nytimes.com/2018/05/23/us/m ... rport.html

Ciao..LiO...Peace

[Ryan Air]

Imagine STL like this... it, too, was on the same path if it were not for Southwest.

[Omaha Cowboy]

Imagine STL like this... it, too, was on the same path if it were not for Southwest.

I understand the same thing has happened, perhaps to a lesser degree, to the Cincinnati and Cleveland OH airports due to the multiple airline purchase and mergers within the past 15 or so years..

What’s happened in Memphis is truly unfortunate...

Ciao..LiO...Peace

[Bob from Omaha]

Imagine STL like this... it, too, was on the same path if it were not for Southwest.

I understand the same thing has happened, perhaps to a lesser degree, to the Cincinnati and Cleveland OH airports due to the multiple airline purchase and mergers within the past 15 or so years..

What’s happened in Memphis is truly unfortunate...

Ciao..LiO...Peace

On a percentage basis maybe but CVG and CLE were really hit hard by Delta and Continental, respectively. Both demolished facilities and saw pax counts dive. Both have come back to an extent. MEM may never recover. What it does have going for itself is the FEDEX hub. That's got to contribute a lot of cash.

[Omaha Cowboy]

Imagine STL like this... it, too, was on the same path if it were not for Southwest.

I understand the same thing has happened, perhaps to a lesser degree, to the Cincinnati and Cleveland OH airports due to the multiple airline purchase and mergers within the past 15 or so years..

What’s happened in Memphis is truly unfortunate...

Ciao..LiO...Peace

MEM may never recover. What it does have going for itself is the FEDEX hub. That's got to contribute a lot of cash.

And thank goodness for FEDEX as it relates their airport.. Without that, it’s a triple “Yikes”!...

Ciao..LiO...Peace