Contrails From United States of America, joined Oct 2000, 1818 posts, RR: 0 Posted (11 years 9 months 1 week 18 hours ago) and read 600 times:
I was thinking about moving to Memphis at some point, but one of my criteria for moving is that Southwest Airlines has to go there. MEM, unfortunately, is not a WN city.
Anyone heard anything about WN serving MEM in the not too distant future? I think it would be a good city for them, it's a great airport with little competition, and, as I understand it, that's what they look for.
DCA-ROCguy From United States of America, joined Apr 2000, 4402 posts, RR: 38 Reply 2, posted (11 years 9 months 1 week 18 hours ago) and read 571 times:
I haven't heard anything. MEM is an odd gap in a region where WN serves most medium-size cities. But it's probably due to Northwest's hub there. Southwest generally avoids airports at which Cartel airlines have hubs. That's why MEM has "little competition," because Northwest owns its pax traffic.
AirTran serves MEM, so you'd at least have them. They're more willing to charge into major Cartel airports.
TxAgKuwait From United States of America, joined Aug 1999, 1803 posts, RR: 48 Reply 4, posted (11 years 9 months 1 week 11 hours ago) and read 512 times:
The biggest problem preventing Southwest from serving Memphis is not Northwest's presence. It is that they cannot fly from there to Dallas Love Field. DAL-MEM is a terrific market....overpriced fares, lots of traffic, about an hour 20 mins.
The previous poster is right. Southwest carries a lot of Memphis traffic. They just carry most of it out of Little Rock. There is a shuttle service called "The Betty Bus" that runs between MEM and LIT and it does a good business across there.
Southwest once considered serving AWM (West Memphis, Arkansas) in order to get a foothold in Memphis....the runway is just big enough.....(6000x100)....but I think the terminal facilities are lacking. Certainly, West Memphis is convenient to downtown Memphis (just across the river on I-40) but it is not well situated when one considers the suburbs where a lot of the air traffic flows from.
Olive Branh, Mississippi (OLV) is another suburban Memphis airport WN might consider in order to create for themselves a loophole in the Wright (Wrong) Amendment.
LoneStarMike From United States of America, joined Jul 2000, 3637 posts, RR: 38 Reply 5, posted (11 years 9 months 6 days 13 hours ago) and read 484 times:
Although this article in the Memphis Flyer from December, 1996 is a bit dated, it does a good job of explaining why Southwest has not chosen MEM so far.
A Hole in Their Plans Why the top-rated airline in the country won't be flying into Memphis - and what it means to you
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