Tag: Delta Air Lines

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Opinion

Sammons Willing to Replace Perl at Airport Authority

Jack Sammons

  • Jack Sammons

Former Memphis City Councilman Jack Sammons could be in line to replace Arnold Perl as chairman of the Memphis-Shelby County Airport Authority when the board meets later this month.

Perl announced his resignation as chairman and board member last month with four years remaining on his five-year term. The board chooses the chairman and is scheduled to meet on January 17th.

“I’m sure interested, but I have not talked to other board members,” said Sammons, president of Ampro Industries. “I’m willing to serve.”

The board’s six members are Sammons, John Stokes Jr., Ruby Wharton, Jon Thompson, Jim Keras and Herb Hilliard. Sammons was appointed by former Shelby County Mayor Joe Ford.

Sammons said he “lives in the air” a good part of his time and was leaving Thursday to fly to Miami for $1,248 round trip.

Sammons would bring political experience, close ties to FedEx chairman Fred Smith, and a plain-spoken style to the job. He has played pinch-hitter for the city before, serving as chief administrative officer for interim mayor Myron Lowery when Lowery succeeded Willie Herenton.

“One thing I know how to do is sell,” he said.

He would also bring continuity, for better or worse, as the board deals with cutbacks in service and high fares from dominant passenger carrier Delta Air Lines. In an interview with The Flyer in 2011, Sammons said, “We have more air service on a per-capita basis than any city in America, and there is a price for that. The authority has been aggressive for a generation in chasing low-cost carriers. It brought in Frontier Airlines, but they didn’t last because Northwest matched their fares. The potential game-changer is Southwest buying AirTran. That is going to change Memphis prices in 12 to 24 months.”

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Opinion

Consultant Says Memphis Should Love Delta or Lose It

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Memphis is barely an airline hub by the industry’s current standards and Memphians should quit complaining and start showing Delta more love or risk becoming a non-hub city, ala Nashville and Little Rock — which might not be a bad thing.

That’s the message from consultant Brian Campbell who met Friday with Memphis Mayor A C Wharton and mayors of surrounding towns.

“If you’re going to have a large scale of hub services then you are going to have to have high fares to support the cost of that operation,” he said at an afternoon press conference. “That’s the choice you have.”

Campbell said airlines have consolidated to become profitable, and 17 cities that lost hub status or a significant number of flights are larger than Memphis.

“It’s almost an accident of history that Memphis is a hub,” he said.

He said Memphians should support Delta.

“You need to support the Delta service that you have. It will do you no good to complain publicly or privately about Delta Air Lines. It’s like getting upset at your neighbor. You feel good after you told him off, but you didn’t advance the relationship any.

“I encourage you to continue to support Delta, to help them understand this market better. Try to get your corporations to support Delta and every other carrier that may be here in the future in terms of guaranteed seat purchases. But whatever you do, support Delta.”

Still, he said, Delta may reduce daily departures from 145 to 123 later this year.

They may come down some more from 145 to 123 departures in November.

“The market is small, and that’s your biggest problem, and there is nothing you can do about it,” he said.

Southwest and jet blue should be our prime targets.

“They’ve got a lot on their plate now but I do believe that in time Southwest Airlines may come to Memphis. Jet Blue is a different matter. They may or may not come and this may not be the right time for them.”

Campbell said Nashville overcame the loss of its hub, but it took several years, and Nashville is a wealthier market than Memphis.

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Opinion

Megabus: Nashville on the Cheap

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I took the Megabus home from Nashville Sunday afternoon for $19.50. The non-stop trip took three hours and 20 minutes, from the Ramada Inn next to the Titans stadium in Nashville to the MATA bus terminal at the north end of downtown, a five-minute drive from my house.

Obviously, Delta Airlines this is not. Delta caters to a different crowd and charges $641 or $787 for a round trip ticket to Nashville at the end of June that you can book on Megabus for $10. That’s right, $10 round trip if you book in advance. Book in advance with Delta and it’s $641 and takes one hour, unless you go through Atlanta, in which case it takes as little as three and a half hours or as long as six hours.

Normally the Megabus picks up and drops off at Nashville’s downtown bus station which is within walking distance of Lower Broadway, the Country Music Hall of Fame, and Nashville’s stunning new convention center that will open in 2013. Because of the Country Music Association festival downtown this weekend, the drop point was the Ramada on the other side of the Cumberland River.

The good: the trip to Memphis was non-stop Sunday, apparently because the bus was 10 minutes later departing. Passengers who had taken it before said it normally stops in Dickson, 45 miles from Nashville, and the schedule says the trip takes four hours and 30 minutes. The bus was half full. The seats were clean and the ride was smooth. The operation was so informal it made me shake my head, possibly due to the unusual schedule to accomodate the music festival. The driver opened the luggage door, the passenger door, and everyone climbed in without even showing our tickets or receipts. Carry on anything and everything was the rule of the day.

The bad: Not much. The trip was shorter than advertised, which I suppose could have been a problem for people who could not arrange an earlier pick-up in Memphis. The toilet did not flush. Someone had been smoking in the bathroom. The wireless, as advertised, was spotty. I could not get connected anywhere enroute.

It’s a nice little addition to the transit scene. Greyhound also has a $20 fare to Nashville, if you book in advance. The same-day fare is $57. And the terminal is out by the airport, which may or may not make it more convenient depending on where you are headed.

I would recommend Megabus to anyone going to Nashville, Knoxville, or Atlanta.

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Opinion

Weekend Report: Florida, Delta, Tennis, Taxes, and Gary Oldman

Gary Oldman

  • Gary Oldman

Best line of the day: Wall Street Journal writer Tom Perrotta on Rafael Nadal’s ability to beat everyone except Novak Djokovic: “To lose so often to one player almost defies logic. It’s like Isaac Newton forgetting how to multiply.” After watching Djokovic beat Andy Murray in a little less than five hours, I think pro tennis players are the best-conditioned athletes on the planet. And the pro men and women are coming to the Racquet Club in February, minus the Big Four, but still a great field. This tournament won’t be here forever so go see it.

Lots of Memphis-related business news in the national press today. Delta Air Lines wants to buy US Airways, which would be its first acquisition since buying Northwest Airlines in 2008. US Airways offers a good deal of what little competition Delta has in Memphis.

The Wall Street Journal also has a story about St. Joe Co. scaling back its Florida Panhandle developments near Destin and Panama City, favorite destinations for Memphians. Anyone who has been down there and seen WaterSound at Santa Rosa Beach probably saw this coming. A successor to WaterColor which is a few miles to the west, the development’s empty lots and unoccupied houses in the midst of all that expensive infrastructure says it all. Some of us at Memphis magazine and The Flyer freelanced for a magazine underwritten by Joe, and we miss the assignments and the paychecks. Joe gave the land for the new airport in Panama City and is the largest landowner in northern Florida, with more than half a million acres.

If you’re on Facebook prepare to be monetized. The Facebook IPO could come as early as next week. Once it’s priced, ordinary investors can own a piece of the company that boasts more than 800 million members. I predict a “hot” IPO that rises but then tapers off. Over time, I think privacy concerns will wear down Facebook and cut the number of members.

I saw the movie “Tinker Tailor Soldier Spy” last night on the recommendation of Flyer movie critic Greg Akers. No one in our group of six understood it very well. The next time I watch Gary Oldman will be in “Shaun of the Dead.” “Tinker etc.” should come with an introduction in which the actors tell us their movie names and identities. Or explanatory subtitles in addition to the Russian dialogue subtitles. Better than all those commercials you have to sit through.

To research the schools merger story, I dug out my old tax bills and looked up some old articles to put together this chronology, which I then ran past City Finance Director Roland McElrath to check the numbers. Tax bills should be as clear and easy to understand as restaurant checks.

2007. The Memphis property tax rate is $3.43. There is no breakout for schools on the tax bill.

2008: Mayor Willie Herenton proposes a 58-cent increase, which would push the rate over $4 — one of those milestone numbers, sort of like $4-a-gallon gas. The Memphis City Council cuts school funds from $93.7 million to approximately $27 million, against Herenton’s advice, in an effort to shift school funding to Shelby County. But other city government spending, including a 5-percent pay raise for employees, costs $42 million. The net result is an 18-cent tax decrease to $3.25.

2009: It is a reappraisal year, and there cannot, by law, be a windfall tax increase due to higher valuations, so the tax rate has to be adjusted. The council sets the rate at $3.19. The tax rate includes a breakout of $.1868 for “schools” on the bill. There is talk of a special tax bill for schools in addition to this but it does not happen. In the special election in October, A C Wharton is elected mayor with 60 percent of the vote.

2010: The rate is $3.19. Chancery Court rules against the City of Memphis and determines that the funding cut in 2008-9 is due back to Memphis City Schools. The city appeals (the appeal is still pending).

2011: Mayor Wharton proposes restoration of the 18 cents for schools. In June, the council puts in a “one-time assessment” of 18 cents for schools to be held in a separate bank account until lawsuits resolved. (McElrath said the funds can be used to pay for any education obligation city has, whether 2009 or any current obligation.) There is confusion in the council chambers. Some councilmen believe this amounts to a tax rate increase to $3.37. But the council sets the rate at $3.1889, virtually the same as the previous year, by taking out the .1868 for schools. Tax bills that go out in July include the “one time assessment” of 18 cents for schools and a disclaimer that any additional taxes approved by council will come in a separate bill. However there is, so far, no supplemental tax bill. In October, Wharton wins the mayoral election with 65 percent of the vote and council incumbents are reelected.

City taxes for schools are small compared to county taxes. On the 2011 Shelby County tax bill, of the $4.02 tax rate, $1.30 goes to city schools and 60 cents goes to county schools. The tax impact hits all property owners while the school organization issues mainly impact people with school-age children in or about to be in public schools.

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Editorial Opinion

The Merger

All’s well that ends well, as the old saw has it. Since the bombshell news of a proposed merger between Delta Air Lines and Northwest Airlines began to leak only on Monday, it’s premature to forecast how it will end. For one thing, the two airlines bring to this marriage of

convenience two different sets of pilots, with two different seniority systems and other benefits packages, and all that has to be reckoned with before the merger is final. Then there’s the matter of possible obstruction in Congress.

Even so, the state of the troubled airline industry is such that the merger is likely to go forward. It promises to provide a real measure of stability at a time when a troubled economy has been causing numerous smaller airlines to collapse, domino-style. Not only would the new mega-airline, to be called Delta Airlines, be a force to reckon with domestically, it would span several continents and become, ipso facto, the world’s largest global carrier. And Memphians, who had been exposed nonstop to warnings that Northwest could yank or diminish its local presence, have been assured by the prospective new management that the city will retain its hub status in the newly configured monolith.

However things develop from this point, and whatever the shape of things in the end, local airport officials are expressing optimism. And, if nothing else, a period of prolonged suspense seems to be over with. For the time being, and, hopefully, for quite a while to come, all does seem well.

Budgeting Change

As we had been warned would be the case, both major local governments — those of Memphis and Shelby County — are facing either downsized services or up-sized tax rates, and, quite likely, some combination of the two. Both Memphis mayor Willie Herenton and county mayor A C Wharton had given ample warning of the bad financial weather, and both, in moving to deal with it, have continued to push for city/county consolidation as the only real long-term solution. But, to invert a familiar phrase, that will be then, this is now, and stop-gap measures have to be found.

Even as Herenton was preparing to call for a major property-tax increase on Tuesday, members of the Shelby County Commission were looking for constructive alternatives to another increase for homeowners. Various proposals were floated by commissioners at an unprecedented emergency meeting on Saturday and in a regular budget committee meeting on Monday. Looking for virtue in necessity, the commission considered everything from massive layoffs of county personnel to another rise in the already dreaded property tax — a remedy rendered even more questionable than usual by the currently flummoxed housing market.

In the process, they revived a formerly discarded and now-retooled proposal for a privilege (read: payroll) tax that would both exempt low-income earners and allow for the general property tax to be lowered. It’s worth a try, though the state has to give its approval to this county initiative. The city will shortly have to start its own head-scratching. Lots of luck to the members of both bodies.