No, it shouldn't surprise anyone. I posted it because I thought it was interesting, and- on a selfish note- a bit nostalgic for me. Place used to be insane during banks; now it's a shadow of what it once was.
As far as the business community, there's some O & D volume there, but certainly not to the extent of other hubs, and certainly not enough to justify the volume of flying it once had. Being a cheap facility only goes so far. IMO, MEM (the airport & city) will always be more of a logistics crossroads than anything, and city leaders should focus on that . The airport itself has had some renovations done in recent years, but aesthetics will never be it's strong suit- unless one is a fan of beige bricks...
I seem to remember lots of talk about MEM-NRT. MEM was also extending/widening one of the runways at the time to facilitate TPAC flying, which only fueled the rumor mill. Not sure how far the planning (if any) actually progressed, though...
