Dive Brief:

• The Memphis area's airport is consolidating, bringing all activity into one concourse from the present three and reducing the number of gates from 83 to 60.
• The project, budgeted at $114 million, includes plans to do extensive local contractor hiring.
• The Memphis-Shelby County Airport Authority will use the present Concourse B as the heart of the new facility, with higher ceilings and wider gate areas, more windows, and moving walkways. The work is expected to get underway before the end of this year to go through 2020.

Dive Insight:

The project is good news for local contractors, but what it means for employment in the area is an open question. The authority has said it will not cut staff, but fewer gates – even with more flights per day expected – and one terminal could bring reductions in the work forces of airlines and of retailers serving the airport.