Originally Posted by
houserulz77
After the merger, DL was using MEM as leverage in its negotiations with ATL. Now that DL's position is firmly entrenched at ATL, savings outweighs leverage.
The international terminal cost issues were resolved 3 years ago and DL mentioned both DTW and CVG along with MEM as alternate airports they might shift some ATL traffic through. What little value MEM may have had as bargaining chip has long ceased to exist.
There has been some speculation that MEM has survived as long as it has is due to it's ultra-low operating costs (and certainly FDX and their landing fees is a big part of that). Whether that speculation has any validity, I have no idea. However, STL and PIT were known for their high costs and we see what happened to them, so maybe there is some truth to the speculation.