Destination: Memphis, the blues and BBQ Connection

If city officials get their way, Memphis will replace Kansas City as Columbia’s federally subsidized commercial flight connection.

Mesaba, a regional carrier for Northwest Airlines, proposed providing commercial service from Columbia through the federally subsidized Essential Air Service program, EAS. Mesaba, based in Minnesota, could offer either two or three flights a day between Columbia and Memphis.

The Columbia City Council, after hearing resounding support during a public hearing April 21, voted to recommend the Memphis options to the U.S. Department of Transportation.

EAS is a federal program designed to maintain a minimal level of scheduled commercial flights to cities where air service is not profitable.

The city council’s first choice was a plan for Mesaba to offer three daily flights to and from Memphis, which would require $2.2 million annually in federal subsidy. As a second choice, the council backed a plan for two daily flights in each direction, with $891,261 in federal money.

“We sent a letter to the D.O.T. saying our airport advisory board and city council agree that we’d like to see Mesaba,” city spokeswoman Jill Stedem said. “Since the D.O.T. pays 95 percent of the subsidy, they’re the ones that make the choice. We should know something by the end of May.”

Columbia found itself in need of a commercial airline after Air Midwest, an American Airlines connection, gave notice it would terminate its EAS service in January. Air Midwest will continue to fly from Columbia to Kansas City until the Columbia Regional Airport finds a new carrier. The regional airline has provided commercial service to Kansas City since October 2006 and also flew to St. Louis until last July. Air Midwest currently receives $598,751 per year to provide 24 flights a week.

In a parallel effort, the city has formed a partnership with Jefferson City and the Tri-County Lodging Association of the Lake of the Ozarks to bring additional airline service to the Columbia Regional Airport. The group has committed about $2 million to help subsidize a carrier that would provide air service to another hub.

City Manager Bill Watkins said on the Columbia Business Times Sunday Morning Roundtable on KFRU that the group was close to an agreement with an airline that would have provided connections to and from Chicago’s O’Hare International Airport. He didn’t officially name the airline but indicated it was United, which decided to reduce operations in Chicago and expand them in Denver.

LONG LAYOVER? SOME THINGS TO DO:

Beale Street – Johnny Cash, Elvis Presley and B.B. King started on Beale Street, the “soul of old Memphis.” Legend has it W.C. Handy wrote the first blues song here in 1909. Today it’s a center for booze, blues and barbecue. The bars stay open until 5 a.m.

Graceland – Elvis’s former residence is the second-most visited home in the United States, behind the White House. It currently serves as a museum. 3734 Elvis Presley Blvd.

The National Civil Rights Museum occupies the former Lorraine Motel, where Martin Luther King, Jr., was assassinated on April 4, 1968. Exhibits recall victories of the Civil Rights Movement. 450 Mulberry St.

Sun Studio – The “birthplace of rock ‘n’ roll,” was the site where Elvis Presley, Jerry Lee Lewis, Carl Perkins and Johnny Cash recorded. Today, Sun Studio offers tours of original recording studios and features a vintage soda fountain. Look for the large Gibson guitar hanging outside the front of the brick wedge-shaped building. 706 Union Ave.

Golf – Memphis has 37 golf courses, ranging from the municipal Audubon Park, with green fees of less than $20, to TPC at Southwind, a nationally ranked private course that hosts the PGA’s annual St. Jude Classic.

Memphis International Airport, the world’s busiest cargo airport

The Memphis airport opened in 1929 and owes much of its success to the cargo airline FedEx Express, which was founded there in 1973. FedEx officials picked the city because of its central location and excellent weather, according to the company’s Web site. FedEx Express has since grown into the world’s largest transportation company, operating a fleet of 671 planes.

On the commercial service side, Memphis is a hub for Northwest Airlines, offering flights to 88 destinations from the city. Northwest operates 80 percent of the flights at the airport, while Delta, American, Continental, United, US Airways and Airtran Airways each offer between five and 14 passenger flights daily.

The airport has been around since the infancy of commercial aviation. It survived on U.S. Airmail contracts through the aftermath of the Great Depression and was commandeered by the Army during World War II.

Proposed schedules:
Columbia – Memphis
5:54 a.m. – 7.29 a.m.
11:25 a.m. – 1 p.m.
4:25 p.m. – 6 p.m. (only for #3)
Memphis – Columbia
9:30 a.m. – 11:05 a.m.
2:30 p.m. – 4:05 p.m.
7:40 p.m. – 9:15 p.m. (only for #3)

Year Emplanements
1997 30,367 Feb. ‘00 – Ozark started
1998 27,806 March ‘01 – Ozark left
1999 24,537 June ‘00 – Trans States increased number of passenger planes from 19 to 30
2000 33,966  June ‘06 – Trans States dropped early morning and overnight flights
2001 23,010 Oct. ‘06 – Last Trans States flight, Air Midwest started flying to STL and MCI
2002 23,271 July ‘07 – Air Midwest dropped flights to STL
2003 21,079 Jan. ‘08 – Air Midwest announced it would terminate service to Columbia
2004 17,925 2005 19,957
2006 13,673 2007 9,090

WHAT PEOPLE ARE SAYING ABOUT THE
MEMPHIS CONNECTION

People care about Columbia Regional Airport for various reasons. Some use it to do business or visit family. Others just think it’s good for the local economy. Here’s what some of the stakeholders said to the Columbia City Council:

“Our company is a destination. Last year we generated over 450 employee trips out of Columbia or back into Columbia. In addition, our pharmaceutical group had 72 site visits, probably averaging about four individuals per visit. Most of that traffic was not identified as Columbia airport traffic because people went to another city and drove to the airports.”
– Byron Hill, president of ABC Labs

“It really is key that Mesaba is Northwest. What it does for customers here is it allows you to purchase through-fares to final destinations. The minimum connection time is only 30 minutes, which is pretty incredible compared to other airports. A lot of other airports are 45 minutes to an hour. Airlines have come and gone here. And it’s because they’re commuter airlines with an interline agreement for baggage, for ticketing. Northwest and Continental is one airline, and that means you’ve got sales support for one airline.”
– Jeff Brand, national sales representative for Northwest Airlines

“The city really needs to promote the use of the airport. We’ve never proven ourselves. We are not a destination city; we are a leaving city. We think they want to come here for the universities for the hospitals, and that’s really very minor.”
– David Rosman, member of the airport
advisory board

“For the past several years, Mesaba Airlines has provided service, operating as the Northwest Airlink to my home airport in Chattanooga. I have found their service to be above average and their on-time record is generally at the top of the carriers servicing Chattanooga.”
– Hank Wells, associate dean at the University School of Missouri School of Medicine and associate director of University Physicians.