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MEM has increased its local passenger totals by eight percent since 2015, a healthy growth rate reflecting more than 400 additional passengers per day. Still, the number of passenger flights (about 80 per day) has remained steady. So what gives?
The short answer: bigger aircraft.
Today almost half of the aircraft serving Memphis are mainline jets that can seat more than 120 passengers. Back in the hub years nearly 80 percent of the aircraft serving MEM were small regional jets (RJs) seating 50 passengers or less.
Today MEM hosts 80+ passenger flights per day, but if we had the same aircraft mix from the hub days, that number would be closer to 145 daily flights per day.
The larger planes not only provide more room and more seat choices -- they're better for the environment, as one mainline jet uses less fuel and produces less noise and pollution than the four small regional jets it would take to transport the same number of passengers.