(04-25-2016 06:27 AM)KnightLight Wrote: (04-24-2016 12:05 PM)WaywardMemphian Wrote: I recently posted an article about Norweigian Air's CEO's mentioning Memphis as a possible place for him to fly Transatlantic from. I'm sure the prospect of Viking Cruises is an impetus for such talk. But if you take a map and draw a circle of about a three and a half hr drive to MEM and the population is over 6 million. You got Little Rock, the Jacksons, Huntsville, Birmingham, and yes Nashville. I looked at that distance as a way to judge if one could get nonstop service across the pond for fares between 600 to 1,000 would folks drive to Memphis and forgo connecting and paying much higher fares via the Big 3. I certainly believe the case for a once weekly flight to London Gatwick could be supported along with growing cruising traffic and just european tourists in general. Norweigian specializes in less than daily. The argument I used for the service being in Memphis and not Nashville is because the north, south, and east are much closer to a hub city than Memphis. Birmingham is not much farther than it is from Atlanta and a complete I 22 and Lamar takes it straight to the airport.
Point is Memphis is strategici n lots of ways in spite of it's detractors.
Several factors are the reason why there are not any regular international traffic in/out of Memphis (besides the charter flights to 2 destinations for Vacations Express):
No other major city airport in the USA has seen as big of a percentage drop in traffic than Memphis...where passenger traffic has dropped from 11.8 Million in 2000 to just 3.6 Million in 2015.
The #1 destination now for passenger traffic is Atlanta...where there are at least 8 international carriers that provide non-stop service to London.
MEM use to be a Top 30 US Airport in passenger traffic...now is ranked #63 in the number of passenger boardings, just ahead of Providence, RI.
http://www.faa.gov/airports/planning_cap...ements.pdf
Also, the challenge of setting up a once a week operation is the added costs in regards to contracted/rented space/employees.
Hopefully Memphis can become a major or even a minor airline hub in the future...as the space/gates are already there...as that would greatly increase the non-stop options that locals (and maybe more importantly, tourists) could use...as many of those former non-stop routes don't exist today.
First, I don't think you understand what the CEO of Norweigian is trying to do. He doesn't want a hub and spoke in Memphis. He believes that certain markets have been suppressed due to high fare prices. He's loading up on Boeing 787s of all models and he's going to test his theory that if you go into a Market like Memphis and offer roundtrips to London for $750. You are going to stimulate a market that previously didn't exist. He isn't trying to make it an every day flight. Maybe one or twice a week and see where it goes. He also knows that his countrymate Viking Cruise Line is going in hot and heavy on River cruising and that is going to bring Euros here and that Memphis will be a major start and stop point for those river cruises for thousands. He likely also sees some non cruising tourism opportunity for other Euros particularly in the music area.
As the past year showed, the O&D traffic at MEM was highly suppressed being under fortress hub domination and corresponding tickets prices.
Let take a Norweigian flight and compare it to Atlanta.
Norweigian operates a once weekly Oakland to London Gatwick flight on a 788. If I book for a two week, mid of June flight this late in the gam, it's going to set me back 850 bucks. Not bad. If I would have booked it 4 months out it was 700 bucks, that's jaw dropping considering that at least two hours farther than Oakland. Now, I live in Atlanta and I check those same dates for a nonstop. Good God, Delat and it's partners (KLM,AirFrance, Virgin) wants 1700 bucks. You can get connecting flight for 1,200 bucks. Delta lives their fellow Atlanta like they did their fellow Memphians. Now if you are a family wanting to go to Disney Paris(Norweigian is setting up shop at CDG) and you hate the thought of a layover/connection with couple of kids at the the behemoth international hubs, 7,000 to 8,000 in airfare is chopped to 3,500, if you just drive 2 to 3 hr to a much more laid back airport you save 50% or more. Delta isn't going to do much price marching for a once a week flight, nor are the other, they want their 1st class and business class, miliage hounds more. If it was in Atlanta, they'd crush that bug.
You mention Vacation Express. Great, let's take their Seasonal flights to Cancun that's once a week. Just last week they said they are going to upgrade to a 738 from AeroMexico. That'll seat 160ish. They are charging for the flight only 400 bucks round trip, cheaper with one of their packages. A 788 for Norweigian seats 291. Several airlines fly Cancun from Europe but Norweigian hasn't started.yet. Memphis would give then an opportunity to do so.flight to Memphis with a mid Morning arrival, a 1 hr turnaround and off to Cancun they go and come back with Euros just passing through Memphis on to Cancun but with enough capacity to fill that plane with folks flying from Memphis in between the the arrival and return to Europe from Memphis. Maybe Norweigian takes that over and with more attractive pricing to boot. They also have the cargo opportunities to consider for both destinations.
You need to.study up on Norweigian, they are coming to midsize markets near you soon.