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Memphis International Airport was bleak in 2014. Just less than 3.6 million passengers flew in or out of the airport that year, down from 10.9 million in 2008.
The story of Delta Airlines dehubbing the airport in 2013 is well chronicled; that year saw 4.6 million passengers, part of a steady decline since 2008. But 2015 saw a rebound, in large part because as Delta’s flight count at Memphis bottomed out, other airlines began replacing the losses.
American Airlines took over the top spot as airline with most flights in and out of MEM. There were nearly 3.8 million passengers during 2015, and while the increase was less than 200,000 additional passengers over 2014, it also was the first year without a decline since 2008.
November 2015 is the most recent month that activity is available. There were 80 scheduled flights that month, down one from November 2014. But larger planes now mean more passengers are flying. There were 338,839 passengers in November 2015, up 16 percent from the 291,766 the same month in 2014.
Year-to-date numbers through the end of November were 3.4 million passengers in 2015, up 4.3 percent from the 3.3 million year-to-date 2014.
In 2015, Allegiant introduced service in Memphis with flights to Las Vegas, Phoenix, Austin, Jacksonville, St. Petersburg and Fort Lauderdale.
And announcements such as the recent news that American Airlines will begin service to Ronald Reagan Washington National Airport on larger airplanes in April likely will only add to the increasing passenger numbers.
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