(Memphis) The Memphis-Shelby County Airport Authority is hoping airlines will be enticed by incentives to bring more flights to Memphis International Airport.
The incentives of free landing fees, terminal rent and advertising up to a pre-set amount have been available for a year, but no airline has taken the offer.
Tuesday, the Memphis-Shelby County Airport Authority made those incentives easier to cash in on, by requiring airline routes to fly only four days a week into Memphis, as opposed to the five that was required in the past year.
“The policy does require that the airline commit for a year and if they don’t fly that whole year, then the benefits that they’ve been promised don’t come to them,” said Larry Cox, president and CEO of the Memphis-Shelby County Airport Authority.
“Clearly the interest has spurred with the latest announcement by Delta to reduce their daily average flights from 97 to 64. That reduction in competitive presence has brought additional discussions with airlines both currently serving here and not serving here,” said Cox.
The vote was held in a special called meeting, more than two weeks before the board’s regularly scheduled meeting on August 15th.
“We certainly didn’t want to delay two-and-a-half weeks and have someone possibly make a decision to do something somewhere else as opposed to in Memphis. We wanted to put ourselves in the best competitive position we could in our relentless pursuit of competitive good priced airfares,” said Cox.
“Hopefully we will be able to have announcements in the near future,” said Cox.
Read More About The Incentives
