Memphis International Airport (MEM) will receive nearly $17.3 million in federal funding through the Infrastructure Investment and Jobs Act that President Joe Biden signed into law last month. Representative Steve Cohen (D-TN-09) announced the news late last week.
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Federal officials will lavish nearly $25 million of coronavirus relief money to prop up the Memphis International Airport, even though the facility has struggled for years because far fewer people use it.
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U.S. Rep. Steve Cohen, a Democrat representing Tennessee’s Ninth Congressional District, has given $4.2 million of taxpayer money to the Memphis International Airport, despite recent reports it’s lost almost two-thirds of its passengers in recent years.
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The federal government is giving the Memphis International Airport $15 million in taxpayer money for improvements and for economic development. This, despite The Tennessee Star’s past reporting showing fewer and fewer people use the Memphis Airport now versus how many people used it slightly more than a decade ago. According to localmemphis.com, the Feds are handing out $49.3 million to Tennessee’s airports. “Memphis received the second most out of all the airports in Tennessee. Overall, airports in the state received $49.3 million,” localmemphis.com reported. “More than $15 million will be used to construct an airport de-icing pad for planes in Memphis. It will also go to the airport master plan and a miscellaneous study.” According to the website, quoting Federal Aviation Administration members, the money “will help the local economy.” As The Star reported last year, the Memphis International Airport has had a dramatic decrease in the amount of traffic that goes through there. In a report that came out last year, the New York Times described the Memphis airport as “a glaring casualty of an airline merger that transformed the American aviation industry but cost the Mid-South’s most important city its status as a hub.” As the Times went on to say,…
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State and federal taxpayers are about to shell out $123 million to spruce up the Memphis International Airport. The people who decided that are reportedly proud of the hefty price tag. As The Tennessee Star previously reported, traffic at the airport has fallen dramatically in recent years. According to The Memphis Business Journal, “smiles were shared all around” among members of the Airport Authority who made this decision. An additional $32 million will go to replace the airport’s 25 passenger boarding bridges. The paper then quoted MSCAA CEO Scott Brockman of saying the following: “We spent a lot of money today.” According to the paper, Brockman said this “with a wide smile.” Airport spokesman Glen Thomas didn’t dispute the accuracy of the quote in an emailed statement to The Tennessee Star. “I think the point about spending money is that we are making a significant investment to improve the travel experience for Memphis travelers,” Thomas said. The airport authority, he added, receives no local tax revenue for any of its projects and is “a self-financing entity.” “Project funding for both of these projects will come from general airport revenue bonds, state and federal grants, passenger facility charges and other capital…
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Federal taxpayers will shell out $43.3 million to improve the Memphis International Airport, despite reports traffic has fallen dramatically in recent years. U.S. Rep. Steve Cohen, D-Memphis, announced the funding, which came from the Federal Aviation Administration. Exactly $28.5 million of that will reimburse airport officials for reconstructing two taxiways. The remaining $14.7 million, meanwhile, goes to what Cohen called “the rehabilitation of the Memphis International Airport’s Concourse B.” Northwest Airlines was once the airport’s most dominant carrier. Then Delta gobbled it up. Delta decided it only needed one hub in the South, in Atlanta. That decision cost Memphis almost two-thirds of its passengers, according to a recent New York Times story. The result — three concourses are left and most of its gates are unused. Airports officials will spend $219 million to close and renovate Concourse B and mothball concourses A & C. No one at Cohen’s office returned requests for comment Wednesday. Memphis International Airport spokesman Glen Thomas, in an emailed statement, said the airport qualified for the federal funding, even though it might seem like a ghost town. These funds, Thomas said, involved federal Airport Improvement Program money. Under federal law the aviation system generates that money.…
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The Memphis International Airport has had a dramatic decrease in the amount of traffic that goes through there, and the chairman of the Shelby County Commission says some of the blame lies with the Tennessee state government. Shelby County Commission Chairman Heidi Shafer talked to The Tennessee Star in response to a recent New York Times article that detailed how Memphis International Airport has lost almost two-thirds of its passengers in recent years. “All of West Tennessee is in the process of adjustment…trying to adjust to the reality of heavy competition with neighboring states’ tax incentives, the move away from brick and mortar, a Nashville-based government that mainly focuses its dollars and action on the middle and east divisions of the state (think Mega-Site), and an airport that must balance crucial cargo traffic with de-hubbed passenger status,” Shafer told The Star. In a report that came out this month, the Times described the Memphis airport as “a glaring casualty of an airline merger that transformed the American aviation industry but cost the Mid-South’s most important city its status as a hub.” As the Times went on to say, there once was a time when Northwest Airlines was the dominant carrier.…
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