Airport Experience® News - Food & Beverage Issue 2026

DIRECTOR’S CHAIR

Left, Below: Renovation of the passenger concourse at MEM was completed in 2022.

and San Francisco. We certainly have the demand. We believe those are routes ripe for success, but right now, a lot of the carriers seem content to funnel passengers through the hubs. And of course, everybody always wants international service, and here in Memphis, what that means is transatlantic. Mexico is a seasonal route for us and, unfortunately, Canada fell off during Covid and has not yet restarted, but we know there’s a strong market for Canadian travel. WARD: Let’s turn to MEM’s terminal development. What’s the latest? BLUE: My predecessor, Scott Brockman led and delivered our concourse modernization, which opened in 2022. That was a $250 million program to modernize our concourse and consolidate all of our operations onto a new, modernized concourse. Our focus is now our head house (ticketing/check-in area), ticketing baggage and the front door of the building, and it is labeled our Terminal Modernization and Seismic Program (TMSP). Our current terminal was commissioned in 1963 so it’s a good 63 years old. Memphis is actually in a seismic zone – the New Madrid fault is some 90 miles away as the crow flies, and in 1963 there were no building codes for building to seismic standards. There were also no building codes for fire suppression in the buildings. Our building also can be a bit congested, as it was designed for a bygone era. Our building is ripe for modernization and expansion, with

the life safety enhancements that you’d expect in a modernized building. Our TMSP is a multi-year $750 million-plus program, probably the largest capital program the airport has had in real dollars in its history. It will expand the footprint of the building while maintaining its architectural characteristics. It will reorganize the floor plan for vertical circulation, adjust around the ticket encounters and bring in a larger security checkpoint footprint, expanding our current checkpoint from six lanes to as many as 14, if necessary. The program is underway, and we’re currently forecasting for that program to be wrapped up right around the end of 2030, or maybe into 2031.

WARD: Are there any concessions opportunities associated with the project? BLUE: There will be some concession space in there – a lot of folks want to get that cup of coffee first thing in the morning, or [the concessions will serve] the meeters and greeters who are waiting for their loved ones to come home. Everything we’re doing right now is focused on our customers. Terminal modernization is one piece of our MEM on the Move campaign. We’re installing a new parking guidance system, which shows how we are really paying attention to our customers and providing the amenities that they would expect. We’re trying to expand our parking to make sure we always have available parking

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AX NEWS JULY/AUGUST 2026