Please register to participate in our discussions with 2 million other members - it's free and quick! Some forums can only be seen by registered members. After you create your account, you'll be able to customize options and access all our 15,000 new posts/day with fewer ads.
I've wondered this at times. I know and acknowledge that Atlanta is a major USA city and metropolitan area and an impactful and consequential place in our national affairs. Yet it seems at though, by virtue of its precise location (northwestern Georgia), it wouldn't be deemed as a crossroads of the USA like Chicago (for instance) or a port-of-entry like New York City, Los Angeles, San Francisco, and Miami (for instance). It would also seem that, as a hub for travel and a gateway to the USA via the Southeast, Miami would better serve this purpose by virtue of its coastal location and being near the bottom southeastern tip of the USA (compared to Atlanta being situated that much further inland in northwestern Georgia). And, being called the world's busiest airport (not just the USA's but the world's), I think to myself "So Atlanta is more of a world destination & crossroads than London, Paris, Tokyo, Beijing, Shanghai, Rome, etc. etc. etc.? Really?"
Wikipedia says the following:
It has been the world's busiest airport by passenger traffic since 1998, and by number of landings and take-offs since 2005. Hartsfield–Jackson held its ranking as the world's busiest airport in 2012, both in passengers and number of flights, by accommodating 95 million passengers (more than 260,000 passengers daily) and 950,119 flights. Many of the nearly one million flights are domestic flights from within the United States, where Atlanta serves as a major hub for travel throughout the Southeastern United States. The airport has 207 domestic and international gates.
So it is the case that so many people from Atlanta fly out of Atlanta and so many people from elsewhere fly into Atlanta . . . more than anyplace else in the entire WORLD? Even exceeding New York City and Los Angeles? Even exceeding London (UK)? and so on and so on?
It says above from Wikipedia that "Atlanta serves as a major hub for travel throughout the Southeastern United States". And so the volume of parties traveling into & out of the southeastern U.S. at-large (via Atlanta) is enough to exceed any other airport in the entire world? You would think that New York City (e.g., JFK International Airport) would be THE major hub, crossrorads, port-of-entry, and international gateway for the U.S.A. and probably even the world. Even as an international gateway to the U.S., Wikipedia says elsewhere that Hartsfield–Jackson ranks seventh.
In regards to New York City, it may be the case that the greater NYC metro area's incoming & outgoing plane trafffic winds up being divvied up between JFK International Airport, LaGuardia Airport, Newark Liberty International Airport, and Long Island MacArthur Airport . . . whereas if the NYC area only had one airport like the Atlanta metro area does, it would exceed Hartfield-Jackson as the world's (or certainly the USA's) busiest airport(?).
So, the central question here from me is: Just what exactly is it that makes Hartsfield–Jackson Atlanta International Airport **the**WORLD's busiest airport? Is this just counting passenger travel only? Or does it also include the airport perhaps being a major shipping control center or hub for UPS (and maybe some other shippers as well), so including the shipment of mail & parcels as well as passenger travel is what adds up to make it the world's busiest airport? In other words, how exactly did it come to be the world's busiest airport?
EDIT or ADDENDA by the OP (after the fact): It does say in Wikipedia's article for Atlanta, Georgia that "Atlanta is considered an 'alpha-' or 'world city'", so this is certainly a consequential factor. And yet it would seem that, just by the seeming advantage of geographic location, Miami, Florida would serve as more of a hub and port-of-entry for the USA via its southern or southeastern portion. And New York City and Los Angeles (and perhaps Chicago) would seem to exceed Atlanta as an "alpha or world city" for all that they individually are and all that they individually offer and by virtue of their particular geographic locations (with New York City being the main entry point for the East Coast, Los Angeles being the main entry point for the West Coast, and Chicago being the main crossroads serving the central U.S.A.).
It is just passenger travel. Also keep in mind, we have more transfers/connections than any other airport. This is what helps us be #1 in passenger totals.
Shipping would have a small uptick on plane movements, which ATL is also #1.
To make this simple, get a map, get a compass to draw a circle. This circle will almost perfectly go through Chicago, The major Texas cities: Houston/Dallas, The Bos-Was Corridor, and Southern Florida.
Atlanta is right in the middle. It is all about position. Now why it was Atlanta and not another near-by city, that because we were bigger and had more of a local population to serve and put more effort into building a large airport very early on. We had a large population, because of the rail hub. The rail hub is placed here, because it if the further north point freight can be directed to the northeast or the midwest from the south without going through the Appalachians. We are a huge natural inland hub.
ATL is the only place that can legitimately say... you can access 80% of the US population within a 2 hour flight.
Now locally, we attract higher than average businesses that require a high degree of business travel. We have headquarters of franchise chains, hotel chains, etc... they need to travel to access their clients/stores. We have a huge convention business working off this too. It takes advantages of cheaper overall flight access for large conventioneers and this further boosts people flying here.
Believe it or not Atlanta also has the nation's 4th largest mass of hotel rooms for this very reason. Las Vegas, Orlando, and Chicago are the first 3.
So for a city our size, we have a higher per capita of business travelers taking advantage of the hub/natural position. It is simply a better place to locate to keep costs down if your business has a presence across the country and you must travel a good bit to handle it.
As for JFK. JFK's advantages are two-fold: Its large O&D base in NYC and its hub operations to Europe (northeast has shorter flights to Europe). For most other connections between other cities, it is not a natural hub. It is further out of the way, rather than in the middle. They do make full use of their two advantages. Now to give credit... don't forget EWR and LGA. Together they are huge and busier.
It is just passenger travel. Also keep in mind, we have more transfers/connections than any other airport. This is what helps us be #1 in passenger totals.
Shipping would have a small uptick on plane movements, which ATL is also #1.
To make this simple, get a map, get a compass to draw a circle. This circle will almost perfectly go through Chicago, The major Texas cities: Houston/Dallas, The Bos-Was Corridor, and Southern Florida.
Atlanta is right in the middle. It is all about position. Now why it was Atlanta and not another near-by city, that because we were bigger and had more of a local population to serve and put more effort into building a large airport very early on. We had a large population, because of the rail hub. The rail hub is placed here, because it if the further north point freight can be directed to the northeast or the midwest from the south without going through the Appalachians. We are a huge natural inland hub.
ATL is the only place that can legitimately say... you can access 80% of the US population within a 2 hour flight.
Now locally, we attract higher than average businesses that require a high degree of business travel. We have headquarters of franchise chains, hotel chains, etc... they need to travel to access their clients/stores. We have a huge convention business working off this too. It takes advantages of cheaper overall flight access for large conventioneers and this further boosts people flying here.
Believe it or not Atlanta also has the nation's 4th largest mass of hotel rooms for this very reason. Las Vegas, Orlando, and Chicago are the first 3.
So for a city our size, we have a higher per capita of business travelers taking advantage of the hub/natural position. It is simply a better place to locate to keep costs down if your business has a presence across the country and you must travel a good bit to handle it.
As for JFK. JFK's advantages are two-fold: Its large O&D base in NYC and its hub operations to Europe (northeast has shorter flights to Europe). For most other connections between other cities, it is not a natural hub. It is further out of the way, rather than in the middle. They do make full use of their two advantages. Now to give credit... don't forget EWR and LGA. Together they are huge and busier.
Thank you. Your answer is illuminating. Yes, many enterprises of all types have located their headquarters or major divisions or subsidiaries in greater Atlanta (compared to other U.S. locales) to take advantage of lower labor rates, lower cost-of-living, and lower cost-of-doing-business than various other options. Yes, certain other U.S. locates may be even lower in cost (e.g., Wichita, KS, Charlestown, WV, and other examples etc.), yet they don't offer all that Atlanta offers to all these myriad enterprises in terms of a total support system and infrastructure for them conducting their business in the most optimal way.
And, as you stated, Atlanta did take the time, effort, and expense to build such an airport that even Miami or Houston or Dallas or others can't quite offer . . . so that is also a factor.
It is just passenger travel. Also keep in mind, we have more transfers/connections than any other airport. This is what helps us be #1 in passenger totals.
Shipping would have a small uptick on plane movements, which ATL is also #1.
To make this simple, get a map, get a compass to draw a circle. This circle will almost perfectly go through Chicago, The major Texas cities: Houston/Dallas, The Bos-Was Corridor, and Southern Florida.
Atlanta is right in the middle. It is all about position. Now why it was Atlanta and not another near-by city, that because we were bigger and had more of a local population to serve and put more effort into building a large airport very early on. We had a large population, because of the rail hub. The rail hub is placed here, because it if the further north point freight can be directed to the northeast or the midwest from the south without going through the Appalachians. We are a huge natural inland hub.
ATL is the only place that can legitimately say... you can access 80% of the US population within a 2 hour flight.
Now locally, we attract higher than average businesses that require a high degree of business travel. We have headquarters of franchise chains, hotel chains, etc... they need to travel to access their clients/stores. We have a huge convention business working off this too. It takes advantages of cheaper overall flight access for large conventioneers and this further boosts people flying here.
Believe it or not Atlanta also has the nation's 4th largest mass of hotel rooms for this very reason. Las Vegas, Orlando, and Chicago are the first 3.
So for a city our size, we have a higher per capita of business travelers taking advantage of the hub/natural position. It is simply a better place to locate to keep costs down if your business has a presence across the country and you must travel a good bit to handle it.
As for JFK. JFK's advantages are two-fold: Its large O&D base in NYC and its hub operations to Europe (northeast has shorter flights to Europe). For most other connections between other cities, it is not a natural hub. It is further out of the way, rather than in the middle. They do make full use of their two advantages. Now to give credit... don't forget EWR and LGA. Together they are huge and busier.
Excellent comments and excellent points.
Some other factors that helped play into HJIA's (Hartsfield-Jackson Atlanta International Airport) growth into the busiest airport on the planet were/are that:
> Atlanta had visionary leadership very early-on in the air travel age that saw and recognized the massive growth potential of air travel before other Southeastern cities of a similar size did...because of this, Atlanta made large-scale investments in air travel infrastructure before then-other similarly-sized Southeastern cities did helping Atlanta's airport to often be at the forefront of air travel...
> Atlanta most-often at-least conveyed an image of being a more-tolerant (and comparately much more civilized) place to do business in the South during the oppressive Jim Crow era and the turbulent Civil Rights Movement era...
...Even if Atlanta's pro-business image of tolerance might have been much more of a façade than reality, Atlanta's positive image as "The City Too Busy To Hate" gave it a distinct business advantage over other Southeastern cities with much more disadvantageous national images (Southeastern cities like Birmingham, Greenville, Richmond, etc)...
...Atlanta's image as a much more tolerant and civilized place to do business helped it to become home to both the national headquarters and airline flight hub for Delta Airlines whose status as one of the world's busiest airlines fueled the massive and stunning growth of the Atlanta Airport into the world's busiest airport...
> Atlanta's very-advantageous location in the Eastern Time Zone in the same exact time zone on the same exact time with the very-popular large Florida resorts, the nation's capital (Washington D.C.), the nation's and the world's financial capital (New York City), and the nation's most heavily and highly-populated corridor (the heavily-populated Boston-NYC-Philadelphia-Baltimore-DC Northeastern Corridor)...
...It was Atlanta's location in the Eastern Time Zone that helped to give Atlanta the edge over Birmingham in luring Delta Airlines back from Northern Louisiana where Delta Airlines was headquartered from 1925 to 1941...
...It was also Atlanta's location in the Eastern Time Zone (along with Atlanta's much more business-friendly image) that gave Atlanta the edge over Birmingham in helping Atlanta to become the site of a major Southeastern hub for airmail...
Status:
"Pickleball-Free American"
(set 2 days ago)
Location: St Simons Island, GA
23,464 posts, read 44,074,708 times
Reputation: 16840
Quote:
Originally Posted by Born 2 Roll
Excellent comments and excellent points.
Some other factors that helped play into HJIA's (Hartsfield-Jackson Atlanta International Airport) growth into the busiest airport on the planet were/are that:
> Atlanta had visionary leadership very early-on in the air travel age that saw and recognized the massive growth potential of air travel before other Southeastern cities of a similar size did...because of this, Atlanta made large-scale investments in air travel infrastructure before then-other similarly-sized Southeastern cities did helping Atlanta's airport to often be at the forefront of air travel...
> Atlanta most-often at-least conveyed an image of being a more-tolerant (and comparately much more civilized) place to do business in the South during the oppressive Jim Crow era and the turbulent Civil Rights Movement era...
...Even if Atlanta's pro-business image of tolerance might have been much more of a façade than reality, Atlanta's positive image as "The City Too Busy To Hate" gave it a distinct business advantage over other Southeastern cities with much more disadvantageous national images (Southeastern cities like Birmingham, Greenville, Richmond, etc)...
...Atlanta's image as a much more tolerant and civilized place to do business helped it to become home to both the national headquarters and airline flight hub for Delta Airlines whose status as one of the world's busiest airlines fueled the massive and stunning growth of the Atlanta Airport into the world's busiest airport...
> Atlanta's very-advantageous location in the Eastern Time Zone in the same exact time zone on the same exact time with the very-popular large Florida resorts, the nation's capital (Washington D.C.), the nation's and the world's financial capital (New York City), and the nation's most heavily and highly-populated corridor (the heavily-populated Boston-NYC-Philadelphia-Baltimore-DC Northeastern Corridor)...
...It was Atlanta's location in the Eastern Time Zone that helped to give Atlanta the edge over Birmingham in luring Delta Airlines back from Northern Louisiana where Delta Airlines was headquartered from 1925 to 1941...
...It was also Atlanta's location in the Eastern Time Zone (along with Atlanta's much more business-friendly image) that gave Atlanta the edge over Birmingham in helping Atlanta to become the site of a major Southeastern hub for airmail...
Spot on. By 'visionary leadership', specifically, the airport's namesake Mayor William Hartsfield. He saw the future of commercial aviation and what it would mean to Atlanta. Remember also that this was about time that Delta relocated here from Monroe, LA.
...To make this simple, get a map, get a compass to draw a circle. This
circle will almost perfectly go through Chicago, The major Texas cities:
Houston/Dallas, The Bos-Was Corridor, and Southern Florida.
Atlanta is
right in the middle. It is all about position...
I am not sure if the stats are still correct, but at one point 80% of the US population was a 2 hour flight from Atlanta.
It's good for us to have this, y'all. Please don't open another airport and make the traffic go down. Look at New York and DC they have three airports for each and no one ever talks about those airports.
Delta chose Atlanta over Birmingham, and that led to the rise of Atlanta. Delta was leaning towards Birmingham, but they blew it.
Please register to post and access all features of our very popular forum. It is free and quick. Over $68,000 in prizes has already been given out to active posters on our forum. Additional giveaways are planned.
Detailed information about all U.S. cities, counties, and zip codes on our site: City-data.com.
Please register to participate in our discussions with 2 million other members - it's free and quick! Some forums can only be seen by registered members. After you create your account, you'll be able to customize options and access all our 15,000 new posts/day with fewer ads.
