The Memphis International Airport is going through a massive renovation, which includes tearing down one of its concourses to make way for other uses at the facility.
The space is being cleared to prepare several major construction sites as part of the Western Tennessee airport's Terminal Modernization and Seismic Project (TMSP).
Demolition of the airport's Concourse A building — which was originally constructed in 1974 — began on July 8, 2025, with a bulldozer plowing through the upper corner of the building and gradually moving across the shuttered terminal.
The concourse has not been in use since 2022 when the airport opened the revamped $245 million Concourse B and moved all facility operations into that wing, according to Glen Thomas, the communications director for the Memphis-Shelby County Airport Authority (MSCA).
He told the Memphis Commercial Appeal that the cleared concourse site will first be used for storing construction materials needed for the modernized terminal project and the replacement of the Outer Drive, the latter of which will take two years to complete and result in a seismically enhanced and expanded departures-level stop.
This phase of the project is needed to enable the terminal building expansion, Thomas explained, adding that the remodeled structure will move outward into the existing inner-curb lane.
Removing the old concourse also will clear the way for a new 63,500-sq.-ft. MSCA administration building to house about 150 employees, including staffers in finance, development, terminal operations, information technology, airport police and maintenance, according to Thomas.
In addition, the ground floor of the new administration building will include a consolidated baggage inspection system (CBIS), which is expected to allow for faster inspection and transport of checked bags from the ticketing lobby until they are loaded onto an aircraft.
The Concourse A demolition is expected to be completed late 2025 or early 2026.
Thomas said the fate of Concourse C has yet to be determined.
"We are going to need to utilize some of that area while we are working on the B terminal," he told the Commercial Appeal. "It's still an area where we have a security checkpoint if needed, and it also could be the potential location of the consolidated rental car area should we move in that direction."
Thomas noted that there has not been any passenger impact due to the terminal construction; however, he said that that will change once the airport moves rideshare providers such as Uber and Lyft down to the arrivals area of the airport terminal.
"[It] is going to create a situation where people are going to have to change their habits and they're going to be getting their rides downstairs, instead of up [in] the ticketing area," he said.
"Also, as we begin to work on that outer drive, of course, that is going to have a lot of impact," Thomas added. "Two years from now, once we get inside the terminal, which will [have the] most significant [impact]."
Additional upcoming TMSP milestones in 2025 include:
• the completion of work on the airport's transit tunnel by the end of July 2025;
• the opening of the commercial curb in September and Uber and Lyft's relocation to the airport's lower level; and
• several pedestrian access routes are also due to be closed in September and in November, including one on the tunnel level.
Memphis International Airport's modernization project is estimated to cost roughly $700 million, which is the largest capital project in the facility's history. The size and scope of the effort is likely to increase as design and construction details are finalized.
A trio of contracting companies are behind the venture to modernize the airport terminal, including the Memphis office of New York-based Turner Construction, Chris Woods Construction in Memphis and Ardmore Roderick, a Chicago civil engineering firm.
