Monday, August 20, 2012

Editorial: Mayors right to focus effort on ailing Memphis International (KMEM) Airport, Tennessee

Editorial:   The mayors are right to focus attention on Memphis International Airport, but where to focus? 

Mayors A C Wharton and Mark Luttrell rightly are aligning forces to try to keep Memphis International Airport strong. But they need to focus their efforts with one top priority in mind — keeping Pinnacle Airlines headquartered in Memphis.

Other airport-related issues will, in time, need attention from the mayors and the Memphis political and business leadership: attracting a new low-cost airline, working with FedEx to help retain its contract with the U.S. Postal Service, making sure Delta Air Lines doesn't further gut its service in Memphis.


But these important issues pale in comparison to the front-burner challenge: not letting Pinnacle Airlines relocate its headquarters from Memphis to Minneapolis, Detroit or anywhere else.

Here's why this must be a priority. Pinnacle is currently in bankruptcy proceedings. As a result, it can get out of its lease in Downtown Memphis. It can renegotiate contracts with pilots and other employees. Working with Delta, it can basically do whatever the company thinks is necessary to cut costs and survive. And all those decisions will be made by October, when the company plans to come out of bankruptcy.

Just days ago, Pinnacle management asked its nonunion employees to take a 6 percent pay cut, chop a week of vacation and otherwise help the company trim $76 million in costs. Only weeks ago, Minneapolis-St. Paul International Airport pitched the idea of Pinnacle pulling up stakes in Memphis and relocating its employees to the airport up there — where Pinnacle already has unoccupied office space.

A relocation would not leave a pretty picture in Memphis. Pinnacle Airlines, even after emerging from bankruptcy as a smaller company, likely will still employ 450 or more well-paid men and women in its company headquarters at One Commerce Square — the most important office building in the Downtown core.

Having Pinnacle headquartered in Memphis means most Pinnacle pilots come here for training and staff events — filling up hundreds of hotel rooms annually. And the headquarters here helps keep Delta at the airport, since Pinnacle is its largest regional partner.

How might the two mayors help keep Pinnacle in Memphis? Getting Gov. Bill Haslam to follow through on state incentives to keep Pinnacle in Memphis will be important. Working with the airport authority to keep Memphis the lowest-cost hub of operations will be crucial. Making sure the current headquarters are viewed as a bargain will be a factor, too.

Memphis needs to keep Pinnacle. That's job one for the mayors as they join the effort to shore up Memphis International Airport.

Source:   http://www.commercialappeal.com

No comments:

Post a Comment