Design
The Memphis Airport Is on a Mission to Become Its Own City
But whether America's cargo capital can support a real urban center remains to be seen.
Quick: Name the busiest airport in America. It's not LAX, and it's not O'Hare; it's not Atlanta Hartsfield-Jackson or Miami International, the jumping-off point to Latin America. It's not any of the airports in metropolitan New York. No, it's Memphis International. Memphis is the busiest airport in the United States in terms of cargo traffic, and the second-busiest cargo airport in the world, bested only by Hong Kong.
All right, so that was kind of a trick question. But the fact is that as America's cargo capital, Memphis handles a ton of freight. The reason is simple: it's the global headquarters of FedEx, which whips 3 million packages a day through its airport "SuperHub" and employs more than 30,000 people in the region.