This past week, the Memphis-Shelby County Airport Authority reached an operating agreement with a popular ride-sharing service, and revised an incentive program geared towards gaining more flight destinations out of the airport.
In total, the $1 million incentive program will make subsidies available to those airlines that offer flights to at least 21 locations, start to offer flights to a new international destination, or begin to offer a new service to a top 30 destination location that currently does not have flights going to it out of Memphis-Shelby County Airport.
Before this new program was created, the total amount of incentives were ultimately determined by the size of the aircraft. For example, an airline that has airplanes with a large number of seats, would receive more incentives than an airline with a plane that had a smaller number of seats. However, according to the airport, the only airline to take advantage of the incentive program was Southwest Airlines.
Airport Authority President and Chief Executive Scott Brockman, confirms this announcement by stating that, “now it’s not by aircraft size; it’s based on prioritization of what we’re trying to accomplish. The plan is flexible enough for us to make it work for all different kinds of situations.”
The new incentive program was created with the hopes of attracting more airlines to the Memphis airport, in the wake of Delta completely getting rid of its Memphis hub. With more airlines and more destinations, Memphis movers are hopeful that this will help more people move to Memphis who are moving from across the country or intrastate, and could benefit from flying during their moving process, rather than driving.
The incentive program is not the only new addition to the airport; the airport has also reached an operating agreement with the ride-sharing service, Lyft.
According to Brockman, “Our goal has been to find a solution that allowed companies such as Lyft to operate at (Memphis International). This agreement not only does that, but also ensures a level playing field with existing commercial services. We are excited that our passengers will now have more transportation options.”