Originally Posted by
lowflyby
MEM has a lot more going for it than CVG in my opinion. One major factor is FedEx. Whether people believe it or not, Fred Smith would have something to say about a MEM base closing, considering over half of his pilots commute into MEM on the airlines. Also MEM doesn't have nearly the amount of winter weather that CVG goes and so it operates very efficiently all year around. And yes, MEM is further from ATL than CVG is from DTW, and ATL can't handle any more flights. I see MEM growing as a regional hub with some west coast flights remaining and maybe even some int'l flights on top of the current Amsterdam route. Just an opinion, but I don't see MEM closing.
Delta could give a rat's ass about what Fred Smith thinks. We craft routes and bases based on our revenue not whether or not guys can commute. We also don't care about the weather. We fly regardless. That's why NY and Salt Lake are instrumental in our plans. Memphis is a nice little operation that can't compare, right now, to the rest of our bases. Its our old New Orleans base which we closed several years ago. If we're gonna keep Memphis open, we'd be much better off reopening DFW. Plus, MEM international? What are you smoking? The real international business is not out of a small southeast hub but the growing Atlanta and LA business to South America and Asia. Not too many hounddogs wanting to fly to Europe, Asia or Brazil. LOTS of displaced immigrants wanting to go home.