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Memphis International Airport Flying High: Named a Gateway Hub to Ronald Reagan Washington National Airport and Best Northwest Hub in 2005.


AmandaHugginkiss

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MEM Notes

Memphis International was named as "the best Northwest Airline Hub in 2005" based on security measures, budget, operational reliability, customer service, etc. :yahoo:

If this is old news, disregard; for those who didn't know this, read on and check out the website (pretty interesting).

If anyone knows, when is the 300+ foot Control Tower to be built? The airport is already in process of renovating roadways at the airport for easier flow of traffic. The control tower is supposed to dwarf the current 180ft tower. Apparently, MEM has out-grown its current tower.

Sorry for the long title. :whistling:

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MEM Notes

Memphis International was named as "the best Northwest Airline Hub in 2005" based on security measures, budget, operational reliability, customer service, etc. :yahoo:

If this is old news, disregard; for those who didn't know this, read on and check out the website (pretty interesting).

If anyone knows, when is the 300+ foot Control Tower to be built? The airport is already in process of renovating roadways at the airport for easier flow of traffic. The control tower is supposed to dwarf the current 180ft tower. Apparently, MEM has out-grown its current tower.

Sorry for the long title. :whistling:

Thanks for the news. I am also curious about the time table for the new tower.

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The new tower was supposed to begin construction this year along with the new parking garage; however, there were issues with money that I think was supposed to go towards the garage, the new tower, and enhancements to the terminals (widening B, perhaps?)...but the state gov't had issues with money for the airport or something along the lines of that, so now I'm not sure when it's going to be built. I thought I heard that the garage and tower would go ahead as planned due to the fact that construction had already begun on those two.

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The control tower was also held up because of its original placement. The new tower's location was close to the current tower, which itself is relatively close to runway 36C. The 300'+ new tower did not meet criteria for Category II and III approaches and obstacle clearance during go-arounds for 36C. Cat. II approaches allow flight crews to descend to 100' AGL with a runway visibility of 1200' and continue landing. Cat. III approaches allow autoland capability down to runway visibility of 300'. For FedEx to continue landing aircraft in very bad weather, they need the Cat. II/III capability; thus the new tower location was moved. It's a worthy delay to get the tower placed properly.

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The control tower was also held up because of its original placement. The new tower's location was close to the current tower, which itself is relatively close to runway 36C. The 300'+ new tower did not meet criteria for Category II and III approaches and obstacle clearance during go-arounds for 36C. Cat. II approaches allow flight crews to descend to 100' AGL with a runway visibility of 1200' and continue landing. Cat. III approaches allow autoland capability down to runway visibility of 300'. For FedEx to continue landing aircraft in very bad weather, they need the Cat. II/III capability; thus the new tower location was moved. It's a worthy delay to get the tower placed properly.

What's the new location?

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Last I heard, the new tower placement was to be slightly north and west of the current tower toward Winchester. This was the plan as of a year or so ago, but it may have changed. Putting an obstacle like that between 9-27 and the 18-36s is a pretty tricky deal when trying to get all the approaches certified.

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Last I heard, the new tower placement was to be slightly north and west of the current tower toward Winchester. This was the plan as of a year or so ago, but it may have changed. Putting an obstacle like that between 9-27 and the 18-36s is a pretty tricky deal when trying to get all the approaches certified.

Detroit had/has a tower in between runways but was further down than that of Memphis. It will be very tricky.

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If Memphis began to become more RJ-friendly, I would say go ahead a build one of the x-shaped concourses just to have it to hold all of the Airlink flights and free up some terminal space for new airlines.

That would be a good idea and I think they are leaning more towards the 70 to 100 seaters. We see what happens. Your idea reminds me of Detroit. Airlink has its own terminal and is very nice. Isn't NWA increasing more flights for their 757s. Boeing 757s are some nice planes and save the airlines a ton of money because of its ability to land at very low speeds for plane it size.

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That would be a good idea and I think they are leaning more towards the 70 to 100 seaters. We see what happens. Your idea reminds me of Detroit. Airlink has its own terminal and is very nice. Isn't NWA increasing more flights for their 757s. Boeing 757s are some nice planes and save the airlines a ton of money because of its ability to land at very low speeds for plane it size.

I think they are...I notice a few of the A320 flights out of Memphis have been replaced by 757s.

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