Atlanta Airport (Peachtree City, Fayetteville, Dallas: rental car, rental, credit)

[MrTudo]

Just returned from an exploratory trip to Peachtree City , Fayetteville and area. Very very nice!

Atlanta airport however is horrible. I can't say anything positive about it

In fact I can't think of a worse airport. Anyone else?

[bbuch]

couldn't disagree with you more. I think it is well planned and considering that it is the busiest airport in the COUNTRY, traffic flows fairly well. The tram is easy to get from terminal to terminal and MARTA is useful if you want to avoid parking (about the only thing MARTA is good for). Sorry you had a bad experience there, but if you are looking for a worse airport you should stop by Dallas.

Later,
B

[MrTudo]

Bbuch, it flowed fine but it's filthy and crowded in comparison to almost anywhere in Florida. That's all I was saying.

It's the only negative we can mention about our 4 days in Peachtree City.

I guess the flip side is that the flights we generally have to take every couple of months will be a little cheaper, and more direct!

[xxman777]

I am going to agree with both of you. The Atlanta airport is dirty, cramped and disorganized. Not once have I flown in or out of ATL without some sort of minor problem. That said, it is one of the busiest airports in the world (still busiest for passengers, no longer for flights) and you should expect there to be problems. The airport has been trying for years to remedy some of their issues and isn’t really doing that bad. Trains and lines always seem to move quickly and flights don’t seem to get delayed too often because of airport problems. If you pay attention you will notice that a lot of their problems seem to be related to growing pains and not a poorly designed airport.

Dallas is a good example of a worse airport. When one says they can’t think of a worse airport it indicates they have been to many across the country and are comparing them to some of the hundreds of other major airports throughout the world, not just a handful of airports in Florida. Because of the amount of business these airports see, a comparison of Hartsfield Jackson to Florida airports is simply unfair.

[MrTudo]

Not fair to compare to Florida? Florida is the hottest area in the country for tourism. But ok, I'll give in to that.

How about Hong Kong? Bangkok? ( HK is busier than BKK although BKK is also a hub ).

It's a shame but there's no excuse for WHY Atlanta's airport is the way it is. We can try and sugarcoat it all we want by claiming it's "busy" but that's not fair either.

Dropping our car off to Avis was also a mess.

[xxman777]

Probably the best comparison would be made with all of the worlds top 30 or so busiest airports, but if you want to say that it is the worst by comparing it to just a couple you really should compare it to worlds top 5 or 10 busiest. HK and BKK are better comparisons then Florida airports but both these still handle less then half the passenger traffic as ATL, better comparisons would be O’Hare, Heathrow, Haneda, LAX or DFW. I can’t comment on HND or LAX as I haven’t flow into either. Heathrow is a better airport but both O’Hare and DFW are a mess. They are dirty, crowded, difficult to navigate and O’Hare especially is prone to delay’s.

Atlanta of course has its problems but they are working on them. They just opened a 5th runway, have plans for a new international terminal (although it has hit some huge snags along the way) and are building a new consolidated rental car center to fix the problems you mentioned before.

I don’t know anything about BKK but when you compare ATL to HK you are comparing Atlanta to an airport that cost $20 billion to handle a maximum passenger capacity of just over half what ATL is currently handling. For $20 billion I would hope their airport was nicer then Hartsfield Jackson.

If you are interested in some numbers check this out.

2004 Official numbers:

http://geography.about.com/od/urbane...stairports.htm

2005 Unofficial numbers:

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/World%2...senger_traffic

[Georgia]

ATL airport is very dirty and yes, slightly mismanaged, however, there is worse. Philadelphia, Newark, and Reagan National.
As far as large airports? Give me O'Hare, BWI, and Denver

Now, if you think Atlanta is terrible, just try living there and driving to it to fly out. If your in Peachtree (The Delta employee city, so watch the home prices if the airline goes South) you looking upwards to an hour plus. If you live north of the city and it is peak time. An easy 2hr commute is not uncommon

[MrTudo]

Hong Kong is a much larger airport than Atl and the differences are night and day. Any airport even in 4th world such as Cambodia is cleaner and not as in your face as Atl.

Georgia, I fly in and out of Newark pretty regularly and I think even Newark is a better airport than Atl albeit not by much.

I mentioned airport because we considered buying a home in Peachtree City area which is why we went there to begin with. I was stunned at how less than 4th world Atlanta's airport is.

What a shame.

[xxman777]

I think when you are say larger you mean more open. By the numbers ATL is both a larger and busier airport. HK was designed to feel very open with high ceilings and wide walkways. Atlanta was designed the same way but has outgrown the facility and design standards are different now then they were when ATL was built. Because of this HK probably feels larger.

Atlanta has 5 runways vs. HK’s two. Atlanta has 176 gates vs. HK’s 48. Atlanta had the second most arrivals and departures last year at 958,593 vs. HK’s 210,112 which isn’t even in the top 30. Atlanta also had the most passengers in the world at 85,907,423 compared to HK’s 16th ranking of 40,282,000. HK isn’t even designed to handle more then 45,000,000 passengers. Clearly Atlanta is both larger and busier then HK.

Older airports like ATL obviously aren’t going to be as nice or as well organized as newer airports but ATL is making an effort to keep up with its growth. New terminals are being built, a new rental car facility is in the works and the 5th runway just opened. All I am saying is ATL deserves more credit then it gets. I don’t like flying out of it either, but I would rather use it then some other airports and officials are working to remedy the problems. Of course it is my opinion that ATL deserves more credit then it gets so you are free to disagree with me, but from a passengers perspective the fact is ATL is simply larger (in terms of capacity) and busier then HK.

[MrTudo]

Oh ok xxman777, make all the excuses you like.

But the fact remains that atlanta airport is a filthy pig sty.

Not just "walkways" by the way. Moving walkways in HK.

Far as people trafiic in comparison between HK and Atlanta, there's no comparison. One is more like a zoo and the other as clean as a whistle. I would venture to say that the crowd at HK could quadruple and it would still be far nicer than atlanta.

I've only used Dallas-Ft Worth on stop overs and can't comment although from what I saw it was nicer than Atlanta. Never flew into D.C or Philadelphia but I have flown hundreds of thousands of miles back and forth to Asia and frankly the domestics should pray to whatever they believe in that they never have to face off with carriers like Cathay, Eva, Thai, Bangkok,Asiana and even Vietnam Airlines or be compared against the airports those airlines make their home. I haven't flown to Europe so I don't have a comment there.

I'll say this, touching down in Ft Myers, or Ft Lauderdale is almost like a vacation in itself after one "experiences" Atlantas airport.

Thanks so much for your "stats". It's enlightening.