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Hartsfield-Jackson Atlanta International Airport

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{| class="infobox bordered" style="width: 220px; font-size: 95%;" |- ! colspan="4" style="text-align: center; background-color: #4682B4; color: white;" |Hartsfield-Jackson Atlanta International Airport |- |align="center" colspan="4"|

|- !colspan="4" style="text-align: center; background-color: #4682B4; color: white;" |Runways |- !bgcolor="lightgrey" rowspan="2"|Direction !bgcolor="lightgrey" colspan="2"|Length !bgcolor="lightgrey" rowspan="2"|Surface |- !bgcolor="lightgrey"|ft !bgcolor="lightgrey"|m |- !align="left" valign="top"|9R/27L |valign="top" align="right"|9,000 |valign="top" align="right"|2,743 |valign="top"|Paved |- !align="left" valign="top"|9L/27R |valign="top" align="right"|11,889 |valign="top" align="right"|3,624 |valign="top"|Paved |- !align="left" valign="top"|8R/26L |valign="top" align="right"|10,000 |valign="top" align="right"|3,048 |valign="top"|Paved |- !align="left" valign="top"|8L/26R |valign="top" align="right"|9,000 |valign="top" align="right"|2,743 |valign="top"|Paved |- !align="left" valign="top"|10/28 |valign="top" align="right"|9,000 |valign="top" align="right"|2,743 |valign="top"|Paved

Hartsfield-Jackson Atlanta International Airport is located in the Atlanta, Georgia, USA metropolitan area, and is the busiest airport (in terms of passengers enplaned and deplaned) in the world, with Chicago's O'Hare as a rival. It accommodated 980,197 takeoffs and landings in 2005, and handled 88.4 million passengers according to projections. Many of these flights are domestic flights from within the United States where Atlanta serves as a major transfer point for flights to and from smaller East Coast cities. As such, it has been the subject of an old joke stating that it doesn't matter where one will go in the afterlife; they will connect through Atlanta to get there. As an international gateway to the United States Hartsfield-Jackson ranks seventh; JFK International in New York City is first.[link]

The airport is located partly within the southern city limits of Atlanta and is adjacent to the city of College Park, Georgia, which is south of the city limits of Atlanta. Hartsfield-Jackson Atlanta International Airport is the primary hub of Delta Air Lines and AirTran Airways. The airport is located within Fulton and Clayton Counties.

¹Statistics as of 2002

Contents

History

Hartsfield-Jackson had its beginnings with a five-year, rent free lease on 287 acres that had been the home of an abandoned auto racetrack. The lease was signed on April 16, 1925 by Mayor Walter Sims, who committed the city to develop it into an airfield. As part of the agreement, the property was renamed Candler Field after its former owner, Coca-Cola tycoon and former Atlanta mayor Asa Candler. The first flight into Candler Field was on September 15, 1926, a Florida Airways mail plane flying from Jacksonville. In May 1928, Pitcairn Aviation began service to Atlanta, followed in June 1930 by Delta Air Service. Later these two airlines, known as Eastern Air Lines and Delta Air Lines, respectively, would both use Atlanta as their chief hubs.

Candler Field's first control tower was opened March 1939 and in October 1940 the U.S. government declared it an air base. During World War II, the airport doubled in size and set a record of 1,700 takeoffs and landings in a single day, making it the nation's busiest airport in terms of flight operation.

In 1946 Candler Field was renamed Atlanta Municipal Airport. In 1948, more than one million passengers passed through a war surplus hangar that served as a terminal building. On June 1, 1956 an Eastern Airlines flight to Montreal, Canada was the first international flight out of Atlanta. In 1957, Atlanta had their first jet flight: a Sud Aviation Caravelle from Washington D.C. That same year, work on a new terminal was begun to help alleviate congestion. Atlanta was the busiest airport in the country with more than two million passengers passing through that year and, between noon and 2 p.m. each day, it became the busiest airport in the world.

On May 3, 1961, the new $21 million terminal opened, the largest in the country, being able to accommodate over six million travelers a year. The new airport was stretched past its capacity the very first year when nine and half million people passed though. In 1967, the city of Atlanta and the airlines began to work on a master plan for future development of Atlanta Municipal Airport.

Construction was begun on the present midfield terminal in January 1977 under the administration of Mayor Maynard Jackson. It was the largest construction project in the South, costing $500 million. Named for former Atlanta mayor William Berry Hartsfield, who did much to promote air travel, William B. Hartsfield Atlanta International Airport opened on September 21, 1980, on-time and under budget. It was designed to accommodate up to 55 million passengers per year and covered 2.5 million square feet (230,000m²). In December 1984 a 9000-foot (3km) fourth parallel runway was completed, and another runway was extended to 11,889 feet (3.6km) the following year.

In 2003, Atlanta's city council voted on October 20 to change the name from Hartsfield Atlanta International Airport to the current Hartsfield-Jackson Atlanta International Airport, in honor of former mayor Jackson who had died on June 23, 2003.

A recent article by Yahoo has stated the Hartsfield-Jackson Atlanta International Airport, is not the busiest airport in the world, according to air traffic. Taken from the article "O'Hare registered 477,001 flights, down 1.3 percent from last year but still enough lead the list, according to the FAA. Atlanta registered 472,431 flights, down 5 percent."

Layout

Hartsfield-Jackson International is the chief hub to Delta Air Lines and mostly handles air traffic to other parts of the United States and Canada. Hartsfield-Jackson International Airport has international service to Latin America, Europe, Asia, and Africa. It has two terminals where persons check in, the North Terminal and the South Terminal. They link to a main terminal for security screening, before passengers head to Concourse T, or to the underground train.

A concourse entrance to the underground people mover.
Enlarge
A concourse entrance to the underground people mover.

Six concourses exist for passenger boarding. Moving sidewalks and an underground "people mover" train made by Bombardier connect the concourses, and the terminals building. Concourse T is attached to the terminal, and was formerly for international flights, before Concourse E was built prior to the 1996 Centennial Summer Olympics.

Hartsfield-Jackson also has its own train station on the city's rapid transit system, MARTA. The above-ground station is inside in the main building, between the north and south terminals on the west end. Built as part of the airport, it was not connected until the south line could be extended to it in 1988. It is currently the southermost point on MARTA, though there are talks of adding a second station for a planned second terminal. This could possibly be a substitute for adding a second people-mover.

Expansion

Major construction projects are underway at the airport during the 2000s, each part of an overall expansion plan costing several billion dollars.

A fifth runway has been constructed and has opened on May 27, 2006. It bridges Interstate 285 (the Perimeter) on the south side of the airport. The massive project, which involved putting fill dirt eleven stories high in some places, destroyed some surrounding neighborhoods, and families will only be able to visit two cemeteries on the property occasionally. At the cost of $1.28 billion, this 9,000 foot runway is the first addition to the Atlanta airport since 1984. The fifth runway is expected to increase the capacity for landings and take-offs by 50%, from an average of 98 flights per hour to 140 flights per hour.

In July 2003, current Atlanta mayor Shirley Franklin announced a second international concourse, which will also have its own terminal. The new terminal will be called the Maynard Holbrook Jackson, Jr. International Terminal. It was slated to open in 2006, however time and cost overruns led general manager Ben DeCosta to cancel the design contract in August 2005. The very next day the company sued the airport claiming "fraud" and "bad faith", blaming the airport authority for the problems. This will likely push back the terminal's completion to 2010. [link]

Also scheduled to be completed for 2010 (though it too may be pushed back now) is a South Gate Complex, a new terminal south of the current terminals. The new terminal is expected to include approximately 31 gates.

The site for the Consolidated Rent-A-Car (CONRAC) facility which will be done by 2009, will house all Airport rental agencies plus a automated people mover that will connect passengers to the Gateway Center of the Georgia International Convention Center and The Car Rental Center is also being prepared for construction and the thirty-five year old Runway 8R-26L will be replaced in the fall. [link]

There have been concerns that income to cover the cost of these projects may decline due to Delta's bankruptcy filing. Delta passengers account for a majority of those passing through the airport.

Check-in and baggage claim

North Terminal

A line of automated and manned ticketing counters for Delta, Atlanta's major tenant airline.
Enlarge
A line of automated and manned ticketing counters for Delta, Atlanta's major tenant airline.

South Terminal

Maynard Holbrook Jackson, Jr. International Terminal

This is to be located on the east side of the airport, near the Delta Air Lines Jet Base, on a site that has been occupied by air cargo facilities and the midfield control tower. The airport transit system will be extended to connect to the new terminal. Unlike the present situation, arriving international passengers whose final destination is Atlanta will be able to retain possession of their baggage as they proceed to exit the airport.

South Gate Complex

Departure and arrival halls

Concourse T

Concourse A (Delta)

Concourse B (Delta)

Concourse C

Concourse D

International Concourse E

International Concourse F

This is to be located on the east side of the airport, near the Delta Air Lines Jet Base, on a site that has been occupied by air cargo facilities and the midfield control tower. The airport transit system will be extended to connect to the new terminal. Unlike the present situation, arriving international passengers whose final destination is Atlanta will be able to retain possession of their baggage as they proceed to exit the airport.

South Gate Complex

To open in 2010+

Cargo airlines

Trivia

External links

 
Atlanta landmarks
Atlanta Botanical Garden | Atlanta Civic Center | Atlanta Cyclorama | Atlanta History Center | Atlanta Symphony Hall | Atlantic Station | Bobby Dodd Stadium | Centennial Olympic Park | Chattahoochee River | Clermont Lounge | CNN Center | Fernbank Museum of Natural History | Fernbank Science Center | Fox Theatre | Georgia Aquarium | Georgia Dome | Georgia Governor's Mansion | Georgia State Capitol | Georgia World Congress Center | Grant Park | Hartsfield-Jackson Atlanta International Airport | High Museum of Art | Jimmy Carter Library and Museum | Lenox Square | Margaret Mitchell House & Museum | Martin Luther King, Jr. National Historic Site | Oakland Cemetery | Philips Arena | Phipps Plaza | Piedmont Park | Stone Mountain | The Varsity | Turner Field | Underground Atlanta | Woodruff Arts Center | Woodruff Park | World of Coca-Cola | Zoo Atlanta
Former: Atlanta-Fulton County Stadium | Coca-Cola Olympic City | Loew's Grand Theatre | Omni Coliseum | SciTrek | Rich's

 
Airports of metro Atlanta
International: Hartsfield-Jackson Atlanta International Airport (ATL)
Municipal: Cobb County Airport (RYY) | Cherokee County Airport (47A) | Clayton County Airport (4A7) | Cartersville Airport (VPC) | Gwinnett County Airport (LZU) | Coweta County Airport (CCO) | Peachtree-DeKalb Airport (PDK) | Fulton County Airport (FTY) | Paulding County Airport (tba)
Military: Naval Air Station Atlanta and Dobbins Air Reserve Base (MGE)

 

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