The Airport Board Signed a 12-Year Lounge Deal. Here Are the Terms.
The Memphis-Shelby County Airport Authority board on August 20 approved a 12-year lease with CAVU Experiences for an Escape Lounge in the main rotunda: $2.9 million in initial investment, 8 percent of gross revenue to the airport, rising to 11 percent above $4 million a year. It is among the first major commitments by the board Memphis no longer controls.
An existing Escape Lounge shown in an image from the company’s Facebook page. The pictured lounge is not currently open at Frederick W. Smith International Airport. Photo: Escape Lounges / Facebook.
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MEMPHIS, Tenn. - The Memphis-Shelby County Airport Authority board on Wednesday, August 20, 2026 approved a 12-year lease bringing an Escape Lounge to the airport's main rotunda, per the Memphis Flyer, a deal whose disclosed terms make it one of the cleaner public-money records of the week.
The operator is CAVU Experiences, owned by Manchester Airports Group, per the Flyer. The company puts in $2.9 million to build out approximately 3,200 square feet of lounge space, with expansion to as much as 4,900 square feet if usage targets are met. The airport receives 8 percent of gross revenue, rising to 11 percent on revenue above $4 million in a year. Entry is priced at $45 per person booked ahead and $60 for walk-ups, with children under three free. Airport officials describe the project as in very early stages, with no construction or opening timeline.
The board making that commitment is not the board that existed six months ago. The 901 Report reported in July that Memphis lost majority control of the airport board and Shelby County lost every seat under a state restructuring. This is among the first significant public-money commitments by the reconstituted authority, and the 12-year term it carries will outlast the current board entirely.
The deal is modest by airport standards, and that is part of why it is worth recording: the terms are public and specific, the revenue share is stated, and the board vote is in the authority's minutes. That combination has not always accompanied larger commitments at the airport, and it is the standard against which future concession and development deals can be measured.
The open items are the ones the record does not yet show: whether the lease was competitively bid, what the usage targets triggering expansion are, and what the authority projects the revenue share to yield.
Why It Matters for Memphis
The Airport Authority is a public body committing public facility space for 12 years, and it is now a body on which Memphis holds a minority of seats and Shelby County holds none. A disclosed revenue share on a paid lounge is a small deal done visibly; the questions it leaves open, bidding and projections, are the same ones that will matter when the deals get big and the local government has less say in them.
