ATL the first airport in the world to reach 100 million pax (Atlanta: station, commuters)

[Newsboy]

Originally Posted by arjay57

He is one lucky dog.

A dog was the 100 millionth passenger to pass through HJIA?

[testa50]

Originally Posted by Ant131531

I always wonder what would happen if Delta decided to pack up and leave Atlanta. I wonder if that would decimate the economy more than one would think.

Atlanta is Delta's inner stronghold. It's the lifeblood of the airline more than any other hub for any other American airline. Delta would never, ever leave; it would collapse trying to defend Atlanta.

Delta's bread and butter has always been Florida vacation traffic. Midwest and Northeast to Florida. This remains the case today--look how many flights and how big of airplanes we've got to Orlando, Tampa, Jacksonville, Miami, West Palm, Melbourne, Fort Meyers, Panama City, Destin, etc etc etc. It's pretty incredible. This allows tons of airports in the Midwest, Northeast, and Florida to have their longest flights and/or biggest planes to serve Atlanta, which in turn makes Atlanta a reasonably good (but not perfect) connection point for longer West Coast/European/Latin American and occasionally Asian flights.

There's always going to be a massive vacation market to Florida, as long as the economy resembles anything like it is today. And with the exception of Orlando and Miami, most of them aren't big enough markets on their own to garner nonstop service from the likes of Albany, Buffalo, Akron, Des Moines, etc etc etc. But combined they are HUGE. And given that Atlanta is the best location to serve Florida (perfectly in line with the Florida peninsula, not too far north or south), and by far the biggest O&D market in the vicinity, it will always be a prize hub for whatever airline can manage to corner the market, as Delta currently has.

[0nyxStation]

Originally Posted by Atlwarrior

This airport is amazing. Great job city of Atlanta, staff, and airlines.

Hartsfield-Jackson First Airport to Serve 100 Million Passengers in a Single Year

Tony is jizzing right now.

[J2rescue]

Originally Posted by Atlwarrior

Great points as Hobby only caters to leisure traveler's. I could be wrong but I thought IAD was United's largest hub after the Continental merger. I'm also baffle at the amount of new foreign carries operating from Houston. I guess being the third largest city and oil market is the cause for new carries invasion out of IAH, but I heard load factor are not as strong because of the oil price drop.

What's your thought on renovated or new planes with Delta being the most profitable S&P company after many consecutive quarters. Richard Anderson is smart as hell and brought over the used plane strategy from Northwest.

United also have an impressive ray of large city hubs Houston, Chicago, Los Angeles, San Fran, Washington Dulles, Newark, Denver, Guam, Tokyo

American hubs : Dallas, Charlotte, Miami, Phila, Phoenix, Los Angeles,

Delta hubs: Atlanta, Detroit, Minneapolis, Los Angeles, Seattle, Tokyo

Judging from past quarterly income statements, why isn't United using and flexing it's hub and proximity to larger metro cities for more quarterly profits.

Shouldn't New York also be considered a Delta hub? Although it is spread across (mostly) two of the area airports and may not function in the same way as their other hubs, the way they've been able to build market share in that market is impressive.

[J2rescue]

Originally Posted by JoeP

I don't see this as a good thing. The area needs another airport, which by the way plays into why Hartsfield's numbers tops other cities. I really don't get why people are excited by this.

It's a milestone that has never happened before so it is an accomplishment. Even combining airports, Atlanta is only the fifth city to have 100 million passengers in one year after NY, LA, London and I forget the other.

At this point, part of me wants Beijing to take the title world's busiest so we won't be so beholden to that title. In one of the articles about this story, mayor Reid said that "we were committed to maintaining the title" which really bothers me. I'd rather the airport be committed to being the best than the busiest.

[cwkimbro]

Originally Posted by J2rescue

It's a milestone that has never happened before so it is an accomplishment. Even combining airports, Atlanta is only the fifth city to have 100 million passengers in one year after NY, LA, London and I forget the other.

At this point, part of me wants Beijing to take the title world's busiest so we won't be so beholden to that title. In one of the articles about this story, mayor Reid said that "we were committed to maintaining the title" which really bothers me. I'd rather the airport be committed to being the best than the busiest.

Remove LA and add Tokyo and Paris and you're good.

I'm not actually sure if Paris has broken 100m. I just don't they are usually one of the 4 ahead of us last year and that wasn't always the case. Atlanta use to be #4.

[cwkimbro]

Originally Posted by J2rescue

Shouldn't New York also be considered a Delta hub? Although it is spread across (mostly) two of the area airports and may not function in the same way as their other hubs, the way they've been able to build market share in that market is impressive.

It is and Delta has several other hubs as well.

Delta is just very heavy on Atlanta as a mega-hub. NYC is a northeast regional hub that competes for a high amount of O&D traffic and a hub for transatlantic flights.

[cwkimbro]

Originally Posted by Atlwarrior

Great points as Hobby only caters to leisure traveler's. I could be wrong but I thought IAD was United's largest hub after the Continental merger. I'm also baffle at the amount of new foreign carries operating from Houston. I guess being the third largest city and oil market is the cause for new carries invasion out of IAH, but I heard load factor are not as strong because of the oil price drop.

What's your thought on renovated or new planes with Delta being the most profitable S&P company after many consecutive quarters. Richard Anderson is smart as hell and brought over the used plane strategy from Northwest.

United also have an impressive ray of large city hubs Houston, Chicago, Los Angeles, San Fran, Washington Dulles, Newark, Denver, Guam, Tokyo

American hubs : Dallas, Charlotte, Miami, Phila, Phoenix, Los Angeles,

Delta hubs: Atlanta, Detroit, Minneapolis, Los Angeles, Seattle, Tokyo

Judging from past quarterly income statements, why isn't United using and flexing it's hub and proximity to larger metro cities for more quarterly profits.

I believe their largest hubs are IAH and ORD, not IAD.

I think the issue is the highlighted above. They do have an impressive array, but I think that leads to them being a bit less concentrated. AA and DL depend very heavily on DFW and ATL, respectively, for their operations.

Another way to look at it is one airline has a mega hub, a large hub, a medium hub, a small hub, a small hub, a small hub, a tiny (lucrative international hub).

Another has a large hub, a large hub, medium hub, medium hub, medium hub, medium hub, small hub, small hub, tiny lucrative international hub. The operations are a bit more spread out in a multi-nodal web.

Clearly Delta is doing something right. I'm sure for a wide array of reasons that are over my head. The one thing I must give them some credit for is they had a major shift in uniforming and getting back to what use to be basic good customer service with their employees. It seems like they beat their competitors to the punch.

Certain things about flying are always going to be a bad experience. The cost is too high to not cram the seats. I mean it is considered a win when passengers get an extra inch. But there are certain things about the operating environment the airlines can control beyond personal space and weather delays.

There is a big move to re-do airports too. Airlines are figuring out that the airport terminals is a part of the package experience of flying. Delta has made major investments in Atlanta, LGA, JFK, and some moderate investments in an array of other cities like Seattle. American spent a good deal of money re-doing MIA.

With the bad times behind them, they are looking for new ways to improve the product and are often targeted investments to go after lucrative markets.

[Gilah G.]

I contributed to that record.what do I get?

[ahut2000]

Originally Posted by Newsboy

A dog was the 100 millionth passenger to pass through HJIA?

The dog received a rare fossilized t-rex bone, belly rubs and a lifetime supply of bacon from oscar meyer