Aviation Specials – May 2018

MEMPHIS

36 // Extreme Airports

became part of Delta Air Lines, which

continued to enhance connectivity at

the airport. By then the name Memphis

International (MEM) had been adopted.

The first overseas flights started in

1995 when KLM launched a service from

Amsterdam. The link was regarded as

vitally important to the prosperity of the

region and prompted construction of

an international arrivals facility with a

customs and border inspection station. A

third parallel airstrip running from north

to south and known as the World Runway

followed, enabling widebodied jets to

reach Europe with a full payload. During

its peak at the turn of the millennium,

MEM was handling more than 230

passenger flights a day, serving 90

destinations. Unfortunately, the business

didn’t last as the proximity of Memphis to

Delta’s Atlanta hub persuaded the carrier

to reduce its commitment to Tennessee.

The link to the Dutch capital ended in

2012, the airport was de-hubbed the

following year, and throughput declined

from a peak of more than 11m to little

more than 4m in 2016.

Meanwhile though, a giant had stirred.

Smith’s vision

Until the mid-1970s, most urgent packages

were transported as conventional freight.

Airmail could be used for small and

light items, which travelled in the holds

of passenger aircraft, but there were

few options when it came to express-

shipping larger consignments. Most

were delivered to a freight forwarder, bulk

packaged onto pallets or into containers,

and transferred to an airline where they

were loaded onto a cargo aircraft or into

the belly of a passenger airliner. After

landing somewhere not overly far from

their intended destinations, the loads

were broken down by another agent and

delivered to the final address.

It all took time, and Fred Smith wanted

to change things. A pilot and Marine

Corps veteran, Smith had been a student

at Yale University. His thesis postulated

that businesses needed an alternative

distribution service to move urgent and

time-critical items. He argued that a

single company could manage the end-

to-end transport of packages, starting

with a local pickup, continuing with

transport across the country and ending

with delivery to the consignee.

Smith’s writing suggested that the

firm should use its own vans to pick up

and drop off items; its own aircraft to

expedite transport over longer distances,

and a hub to distribute shipments across

a wide network. He also contended that

the US air cargo system was inflexible,

bound by regulations, and incapable of

making such deliveries in a sufficiently

timely manner.

Smith’s paper received a lukewarm

reception from his Yale professors, but

he persevered with the concept. A $4m

inheritance and $90m in venture capital

enabled him to launch Federal Express

in Arkansas in 1971. The concept gained

little support from Little Rock Regional

Airport so Smith set up shop in Memphis,

Tennessee, which was conveniently

located in the middle of the country and

had a good weather record. An added

inducement came when the authorities

BELOW: Federal

Express was

launched with

14 Dassault

Falcon 20 jets.

(AireamImages.

com / Carl Ford)

A McDonnell

Douglas MD-11F

taxies for depar-

ture, flanked by

Airbus tails.

The overnight sort handles around 1.3m shipments. (FedEx Express)

34-41_Memphis.indd 36 11/05/2018 12:44