ST. PAUL, MN—Pinnacle Airlines Corp. has announced it is moving its headquarters from Memphis, Tenn. to vacant space currently leased by Delta Air Lines here at the Minneapolis-St. Paul International Airport property.
According to a company statement, the decision came after an exhaustive evaluation of the most cost-effective option as Pinnacle emerges from Chapter 11. Flying as Delta Connection, Pinnacle operates 191 regional jets on 1,000 daily flights to more than 100 cities in the United States and Canada.
Tentative plans call for the move to Minnesota to be completed by May. The present headquarters location in Memphis, Tenn. was also evaluated. Pinnacle presently occupies 170,000 sq. ft. at One Commerce Square in downtown Memphis, which houses approximately 500 employees.
"This is a significant milestone in our restructuring and represents substantial progress that we expect will allow us to continue down a path toward successfully emerging from bankruptcy," said John Spanjers, president and CEO of Pinnacle, in the statement. "We had the responsibility to explore every aspect of our business to find opportunities to reduce costs, including evaluating our property leases, to find the most economical options for Pinnacle. Our analysis covered everything from the available labor pool and operational alignment to economic incentives. Both Memphis and the state of Minnesota presented very strong cases. In the end, it was an economic decision."