Jump to content

Memphis International Airport


northernbizzkit1

Recommended Posts

Great pics. You really are a talented photographer. The terminal is pretty dated, but I think the 70s design has aged pretty gracefully. The terazzo floors and brick walls have held up well over the years and don't scream 70s. I still like the martini glass ticket hall, but I think the painted white concrete should be covered with something more modern. The airport really needs some landscaping, and that is their next project. I've heard they are going to spend millions on landscaping when they finish the reconfiguration of the roadways.

Link to comment
Share on other sites


  • Replies 563
  • Created
  • Last Reply

Great pics. You really are a talented photographer. The terminal is pretty dated, but I think the 70s design has aged pretty gracefully. The terazzo floors and brick walls have held up well over the years and don't scream 70s. I still like the martini glass ticket hall, but I think the painted white concrete should be covered with something more modern. The airport really needs some landscaping, and that is their next project. I've heard they are going to spend millions on landscaping when they finish the reconfiguration of the roadways.

I wonder how they plan on doing that while working around construction of a new parking garage as well as a new taller air traffic control tower. Does anyone know if those are on schedule for construction in the fall as planned?

Link to comment
Share on other sites

Great pics. You really are a talented photographer. The terminal is pretty dated, but I think the 70s design has aged pretty gracefully. The terazzo floors and brick walls have held up well over the years and don't scream 70s. I still like the martini glass ticket hall, but I think the painted white concrete should be covered with something more modern. The airport really needs some landscaping, and that is their next project. I've heard they are going to spend millions on landscaping when they finish the reconfiguration of the roadways.

Maybe clad the martini glasses in metal? The reflection would be distracting, tho.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

Amsterdam flight:

original.jpg

Thanks for the pics! They're really good.

The plane to Amsterdam looks great; it's some sort of A-330 right? Even though it might be close to as large as the former DC-10 to Amsterdam, I always loved going to the airport in the afternoon and see that big old thing towering over all the little DC-9's, A-319's, and so on. It looked like a mother hen and everything else looked like her chicks. I never saw them, but 10 or so years ago, the airport had 747's to MSP!

Great pics. You really are a talented photographer. The terminal is pretty dated, but I think the 70s design has aged pretty gracefully. The terazzo floors and brick walls have held up well over the years and don't scream 70s. I still like the martini glass ticket hall, but I think the painted white concrete should be covered with something more modern. The airport really needs some landscaping, and that is their next project. I've heard they are going to spend millions on landscaping when they finish the reconfiguration of the roadways.

Actually, the main terminal opened in 1963, not the 70's and I think it was done in classy, well-designed modernist, and timeless architecture. Compare it to office buildings from 1963. It's way ahead of that. I've only been through MEM once in the past 15 years, so I'm posting out of ignorance, but I think absolutely nothing should be done to the exterior.

Newer airports don't seem to have much style. Most seem to be purely functional in a "slab" sort of way.

Most complaints I've heard deal with the inside. The corridors are too narrow, and they really are. The place has old carpets, and so on. I'm sure that's accurate, and the county should spend the dough to correct that sort of thing, which isn't terribly expensive. On the same hand, many people like to connect through there, because as a hub it's very convenient and connections are timely and easy.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

Sleepy, you are correct in that the AMS flight is on a Airbus A330-323X. I thought it was typically on a A330-200, but this one was a -300. When was it upgraded? My wife and I want to take this flight after seeing the airplane now! LOL!!!

To everyone who has visited and commented

Thank you very much. Everyone in Memphis was overly nice and my wife and I would certainly come back for more pics and fun and games. Thank you again.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

NWA upgrades MEM-AMS to an A330-300 (295-ish seats) during the summer and operates an A330-200 (240-ish seats) during the slower winter travel season. I hear the World Business Class in this thing blows the DC10 away and the DC10 biz class was a great experience; I too want to get on this flight soon.

For what it's worth, I wouldn't mind NWA keeping the AMS flight an A330-200 and supplementing it with an A330-200 to CDG. 480-500 seats going to Europe daily would be a huge boost to business here.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

NWA upgrades MEM-AMS to an A330-300 (295-ish seats) during the summer and operates an A330-200 (240-ish seats) during the slower winter travel season. I hear the World Business Class in this thing blows the DC10 away and the DC10 biz class was a great experience; I too want to get on this flight soon.

For what it's worth, I wouldn't mind NWA keeping the AMS flight an A330-200 and supplementing it with an A330-200 to CDG. 480-500 seats going to Europe daily would be a huge boost to business here.

Don't forget AirFrance! haha...i think that's kinda faded unless they are still evaluating...blah. o well, Northwest is coming out of bankruptcy...maybe they will utilize the hub here. It'd be nice to have at least a MEM-LGW flight and maybe one to somewhere in South America. It'd be kinda cool to see a few more widebody Northwest flights here. But i gotta say from personal experience, the MEM-AMS flight on the A330 is EXTREMELY nice. Friendly staff and very nice plane. I don't really know how the DC-10 was, but I heard it was getting a bit dated.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

Don't forget AirFrance! haha...i think that's kinda faded unless they are still evaluating...blah. o well, Northwest is coming out of bankruptcy...maybe they will utilize the hub here. It'd be nice to have at least a MEM-LGW flight and maybe one to somewhere in South America. It'd be kinda cool to see a few more widebody Northwest flights here. But i gotta say from personal experience, the MEM-AMS flight on the A330 is EXTREMELY nice. Friendly staff and very nice plane. I don't really know how the DC-10 was, but I heard it was getting a bit dated.

Those old Douglass jets are supposedly built like tanks, and can last forever. Some DC-3's are still flying in the third world and they were last built over 50 years ago.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

Those old Douglass jets are supposedly built like tanks, and can last forever. Some DC-3's are still flying in the third world and they were last built over 50 years ago.

Some of them are still flying to MEM for FedEx! LOL!!! Go figure. But you are spot on about them being built like tanks.

Thanks again fellas. I sincerly appreciate the kind words and your visits to the website.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

I'll put this in the MS forum too, but does anyone on here think Tunica would be perfect for Skybus? (it's this new airline out of Columbus that flies into secondary airports for cities and is known for having at least ten seats on all flights that go for $10) I mean, they wouldn't have to face Northwest or any high costs out of MEM, and I'm sure Tunica Airport officials would be more than willing to be accomodating to it. Plus, it seems a BIT more stable than Pan Am Clipper Connection (which left not because of loads but because it dropped out of the Atlanta market completely)

Link to comment
Share on other sites

I'll put this in the MS forum too, but does anyone on here think Tunica would be perfect for Skybus? (it's this new airline out of Columbus that flies into secondary airports for cities and is known for having at least ten seats on all flights that go for $10) I mean, they wouldn't have to face Northwest or any high costs out of MEM, and I'm sure Tunica Airport officials would be more than willing to be accomodating to it. Plus, it seems a BIT more stable than Pan Am Clipper Connection (which left not because of loads but because it dropped out of the Atlanta market completely)

I think that's very intersting to think about NB. Good idea IMO.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

  • 2 weeks later...

Northwest continues its slow Caribbean expansion at MEM. The airline has applied for Memphis-Puerto Vallarta service with the US DOT. This would complement existing service at MEM to Cancun, Cozumel, Montego Bay, and Nassau. Always good to see new international routes out of MEM! Hopefully we will continue as the Caribbean hub for NW

Link to comment
Share on other sites

Northwest continues its slow Caribbean expansion at MEM. The airline has applied for Memphis-Puerto Vallarta service with the US DOT. This would complement existing service at MEM to Cancun, Cozumel, Montego Bay, and Nassau. Always good to see new international routes out of MEM! Hopefully we will continue as the Caribbean hub for NW

That's a welcomed relief! This flight should do well for NW out of MEM. I for one would love to be able to take this as opposed to the hassle of fooling with American at DFW for a connection to Puerto Vallarta.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

Northwest continues its slow Caribbean expansion at MEM. The airline has applied for Memphis-Puerto Vallarta service with the US DOT. This would complement existing service at MEM to Cancun, Cozumel, Montego Bay, and Nassau. Always good to see new international routes out of MEM! Hopefully we will continue as the Caribbean hub for NW

If I'm correct, and I may not be, I believe airlines apply for routes all the time that they end up not using for whatever reason. Let's hope this works out.

I think too that Puerto Vallarta isn't Caribbean but Pacific.

Didn't one time, ten or so years ago, NWA fly from MEM to a couple of Mexican Pacific destinations? Also, whatever happened to the MEM-Monterrey flight that started up right before 9-11?

Finally, does NWA fly from MEM to Mexico City?

Link to comment
Share on other sites

If I'm correct, and I may not be, I believe airlines apply for routes all the time that they end up not using for whatever reason. Let's hope this works out.

I think too that Puerto Vallarta isn't Caribbean but Pacific.

Didn't one time, ten or so years ago, NWA fly from MEM to a couple of Mexican Pacific destinations? Also, whatever happened to the MEM-Monterrey flight that started up right before 9-11?

Finally, does NWA fly from MEM to Mexico City?

This will be a seasonal destination. Northwest has been pretty good about following through with what it applies for with its hubs. True about Puerto Vallarta being Pacific, I guess you should say Northwest continues to grow Memphis as a Latin American/Caribbean hub, but the airlines tend to just lump it together as Caribbean.

That they did. In fact, this flight was flown from MEM before. The MEM-MTY flight was cancelled...many wondered why this flight came to be when MEM-Mexico City would have been better. Currently, they don't fly from MEM to Mexico City.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

Pinnacle used to fly the CRJ200 from MEM to Monterrey (MTY). The "experiment" was a failure as Pinnacle really wanted to pursue Mexico service, but NWA did not want to market it. NWA agreed to let Pinnacle fly to MTY, but NWA never actively sold the flight. As a result, the flights usually had fewer than 10 passengers aboard and were often empty. I put the blame on NWA and not Pinnacle for that failure as NWA did not want to establish MEM as a Latin American gateway. MTY and Mexico City (MEX) both make great sense as MEM destinations as MTY is the corporate center of Mexico (AutoZone Mexico is HQ there with many people making the trip from MEM on CoEx through IAH) and MEX is an obvious destination being the center of government and lots of industry. Acapulco and Puerto Vallarta would be great seasonal destinations as well.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

  • 2 weeks later...

The MBJ had a recent article about Frontier's strategy in the Memphis market. Let's hope they are successful in the long run. As fas as the NWA Denver flights on Airbuses go, they are now serving far more passengers than the 50-seat CRJs used to, so the demand to the west is there. I was sitting across from a DEN gate recently while that flight boarded and it had well over 100 people on it, so Frontier's entry has definitely helped that part of the market.

http://memphis.bizjournals.com/memphis/sto...2744000^1479928

Link to comment
Share on other sites

Northwest is apparently facing pilot shortages and has had to cancel numerous flights and will continue to do so until June 25. 240 flights are expected to be cancelled system-wide...not horrible, but not good. From Memphis today, flights to Denver, Phoenix, Tampa, Dallas, two to New York-LGA, Cancun, and Atlanta have been cancelled. Eight flights isn't too bad for the hub. Frontier can pick up the Denver and probably the Phoenix passengers haha

Link to comment
Share on other sites

The world's largest airplane, the Antonov AN-225 has been in Memphis a couple of times in the past week. I haven't seen much media coverage of this, but some friends of mine got pics of it. I saw it when I was landing on 36R last week and definitely did a double-take; it's HUGE! It's 276' long with a wingspan of 291'. It has a max takeoff gross weight of 1.3 million pounds. It was in MEM last week to pick up a 270,000 lb. generator from Southaven and take it to Kuwait (presumably oilfield equipment). Not sure if another generator is its cargo this week or whether it will be in town again soon.

an2257dm5.jpg

an2256nd6.jpg

an2255wm2.jpg

an2254ft2.jpg

an2253jb0.jpg

an2252mm7.jpg

an2251xg8.jpg

Link to comment
Share on other sites

Archived

This topic is now archived and is closed to further replies.

  • Recently Browsing   0 members

    • No registered users viewing this page.
×
×
  • Create New...

Important Information

By using this site you agree to our Terms of Use and Privacy Policy. We have placed cookies on your device to help make this website better. You can adjust your cookie settings, otherwise we'll assume you're okay to continue.