Memphis mayor
Watkins Overton put together a commission in 1927 to establish an airport. It was built on a plot of farmland from downtown Memphis and opened on June 14, 1929, as Memphis Municipal Airport. The two-day dedication ceremony featured aerial stunts and the arrival of over 200 aircraft. In its early years the airport had three hangars and a sod runway.
Standard Oil of Louisiana built the terminal after securing the right to supply all of the airfield's oil and gasoline.
Robertson Aircraft Corporation, which would merge into
American Airways, started passenger flights to New Orleans and St. Louis in April 1930 on Ryan monoplanes. The following June, American Airways commenced the first airmail service from Memphis. During the 1930s, Memphis figured on American's east–west route between New York and Los Angeles and on Chicago and Southern's north–south route linking Chicago to New Orleans. That year 31,000 passengers used the airport. That December the headquarters of the
4th Ferrying Group of the Army Air Forces
Air Transport Command shifted to the airport. The group was tasked with sending new aircraft overseas; pilots departed Memphis for South America and then flew over the South Atlantic Ocean to Africa. Personnel such as mechanics and engineers underwent training at the base and then traveled overseas. Chicago and Southern's repair facilities at the airport were used to repair military planes. Commercial air service continued, though it was limited. The ferrying group's postwar activities included moving planes off deactivated bases. The ferrying group ceased operations in March 1947. City officials reached an agreement with the federal government in January 1949 to regain control of the airfield. The following year, passenger counts crossed one million. The
United States Supreme Court in
Turner v. City of Memphis ordered the
desegregation of the airport in 1962. Jesse Turner, an African-American banker and
civil rights activist, had filed the case after he was denied service in the main dining room of the restaurant. In June 1963, a new terminal built for the
jet age was dedicated, and the airport was rechristened Memphis Metropolitan Airport. It was one of the first airport terminals to have a two-level design where passengers boarded aircraft via
jet bridges on the upper level and collected their luggage on the lower level. Another unique aspect of the structure was its columns resembling martini glasses. In 1969, the Memphis–Shelby County Airport Authority was formed, and the facility changed its name to Memphis International Airport after being designated a customs port of origin. Expansion continued in the 1970s. A west concourse was added in 1974 and an east one the following year. The airport constructed another north–south runway, a parking garage, and a road linking the terminal to
Interstate 240. The central concourse was extended as well.
Hub status Air-cargo company
Federal Express moved its base to Memphis from Little Rock, Arkansas, in 1973. Memphis was selected because of its temperate climate and location in the middle of the country. The decision was credited with enabling the city to go from a river port of decreasing economic relevance to an important global distribution center. Memphis became the busiest airport by cargo traffic worldwide in 1992. Republic began the first international flight from Memphis to Puerto Vallarta in December 1985. As of 1986, it connected the airport to 60 destinations. That year the company merged into
Northwest Airlines, which maintained the hub.
KLM, a partner of Northwest, launched the airport's first transatlantic passenger flight to Amsterdam in June 1995. To commemorate the occasion, the airline named the
McDonnell Douglas MD-11 operating the inaugural flight
Elvis 1 and gave each passenger gifts, among them a small bottle of
Jack Daniel's whiskey. In preparation for the flight, the airport had constructed a new customs facility. In 1997, Northwest acquired
Express Airlines I, a regional carrier that operated under the
Northwest Airlink brand, and shifted its headquarters to Memphis. The airport served 11.8 million travelers in 2000. Northwest and the airport authority worked together on the fifth project. They added 15 gates to Concourse A for Express I's new 50-seat
Bombardier CRJs. Other upgrades included a post-security corridor linking Concourses B and C, a new lounge, and faster ticket counters. Three years later, the middle runway was rebuilt and lengthened to . Dubbed the World Runway, it enabled KLM to take off from Memphis with a full cabin in hot conditions and FedEx to carry more cargo. The carrier utilized all the gates in Concourse B, as well as some in A and C. As of 2004, it operated about 210 daily flights to more than 80 destinations. The airport had mainline flights to cities such as Boston and San Francisco. Northwest Airlink flew to communities within Tennessee and across the South, like Baton Rouge and Chattanooga. The hub had international service to three countries in North America and one in Europe. Northwest offered a daily flight to Amsterdam; it had replaced KLM on the route in 2003. Other destinations included Montego Bay and Toronto. However, due to high fuel costs, the company made Memphis subordinate to its hub in
Atlanta. The airport's role changed to handling traffic that exceeded Atlanta's capacity, and flights were gradually scaled back. Delta discontinued the Amsterdam link in September 2012; as the hub shrank, so did the amount of connecting traffic that supported the flight. The following year,
Pinnacle Airlines Corp. moved its headquarters out of the city. The holding company owned Pinnacle Airlines, formerly known as Express Airlines I. Delta closed the hub in September 2013, decreasing the number of daily departures from 94 to 60. The carrier attributed its decision to limited local demand and the inefficiency of 50-seat regional jets. In 2014, the Memphis–Shelby County Airport Authority announced a renovation of the airport that would involve modernizing Concourse B and mothballing the other two concourses. On the other hand, airfares dropped and new low-cost airlines entered the market, such as
Southwest Airlines. The airport continued to see a high level of cargo activity due to the FedEx hub. As of 2018, Memphis was the second-busiest cargo airport in the world. The southwest wing of the concourse was not renovated because of cost and a lack of need for the additional gates. Work commenced on an expansion of the landside portion of the terminal in 2024. The program includes tearing down Concourse A to make room for an administrative and baggage-inspection building. Following the death of
Frederick W. Smith, founder of FedEx, in June 2025, the airport authority decided to rename the facility in his honor due to his contributions to the city of Memphis and the airport in particular. The
Federal Aviation Administration was working on implementing the change as of December 2025. ==Facilities==