Originally Posted by
nicholasblonde
Reading info like that on ATL/JFK makes one wonder why on earth Delta would shut down Memphis as some have suggested they might...Memphis could take a lot of pressure off of ATL for Southern/Southeastern routes, and with 18C/36C could even act as a decent connecting hub for some long-range stuff...zero icing issues in winter, decent weather year-round, and anyone who has been in MEM after one of the pushes knows they could squeeze in a decent "flow" of additional flights (per Delta's route structure, which is less push-oriented) while MEM is a ghosttown in the AM at least (afternoon in between pushes would conflict with FedEx I guess).
But I've heard from lots of mainline DAL that CVG will stand and Memphis will get reduced...just been trying to get my head wrapped around that one...
actually from what i have heard memphis is going to become a bigger international hub for delta, focusing on the asian markets. i heard this from some of the delta guys in memphis. not that it means anything but growing memphis and taking some of the heat of atl makes perfect sense.
mem pushes are timed the way they are for several reasons. first like you mentioned fedex. as soon as our pushes are done all the fedex planes start rolling out. anyone who has been late out of memphis knows that if you are more than an hour late you know that you will be number 15 behind fedex. second we have tight alleys in mem. it would be a cluster if people were comming and going at different times. everyone comes in, and then everyone goes out.
i have also heard the rumor that we would be starting the 4th push again in mem. we used to have it a long time ago (back in the saab days) and it would leave around 1030 or so at night. that would help reduce some of the flights out of atlanta if they could add another push to mem.