Memphis airport being renamed after Fred Smith
Memphis International Airport will be renamed Frederick W. Smith International Airport in honor of late FedEx founder Fred Smith. (Photo by Annie Leibovitz)
It’s official: Memphis International Airport will be Frederick W. Smith International Airport.
Memphis International Airport President and CEO Terry Blue said the Federal Aviation Administration is in the process of making the change in its internal databases.
Blue said at the Memphis-Shelby County Airport Authority board meeting on Thursday, Dec. 18, that the airport’s designation — MEM — will remain.
The MSCAA board unanimously approved a resolution in June to name the airport after the late FedEx founder, Fred Smith, who passed away on June 21 at age 80.
“We’ve been working through that process as directed,” Blue said. “This is a healthy administrative process that the FAA must work through with (its) various lines of business. We’ve started to see the new airport name populate in various FAA databases.”
Blue said although he does not have confirmation from the FAA, it is possible that “Frederick W. Smith International Airport” could appear on various aeronautical charts and flight charts by mid-January.
“This in no way, shape, or form affects how they book their flights to and from Memphis,” Blue said. “We are still working on logo development, branding and so forth and so on.”
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Memphis International Airport Frederick W. Smith International Airport MEM MSCAASophia Surrett
Sophia Surrett is a University of Alabama graduate, where she received her B.A. in news media and M.A. in journalism and media studies. She covers small business, nonprofits, restaurant real estate, hospitality and tourism, manufacturing, and transportation and logistics.
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