ATL Airport | World's Busiest/Largest Airport (Atlanta, Savannah: 2013, home, to live in)

[tonygeorgia]

It feels great to live in a city with the WORLD'S BUSIEST and LARGEST AIRPORT


United & Continental merge to become world's largest airline


Combined revenues of United and Continental is $29 billion. United shareholders will control 55 percent of the new airline and Continental's will hold the remainder. With routes stretching from China to South America, the United States to Europe, the Middle East and Africa, the new United Airlines will have its largest hub at Houston George Bush Intercontinental Airport. The massive airline would hold the number one position in terms of available seats in New York, Los Angeles, San Francisco and Houston. It would continue to have strong competition in Chicago from American Airlines and would not be a major player in Atlanta, home to Delta Air Lines and the world's busiest airport.

http://www.geohive.com/charts/ec_airport1.aspx Largest passenger airports of the world
1. Atlanta
4. Chicago

[jaxontwinz]

Hartsfield-Jackson Atlanta International Airport is the busiest airport in the world... for the 11th year in a row! That is unbelievable to me. The airport handled 92.39 million passengers in 2011, more than it has ever gotten. It also had 9.86 million international travelers.

Hartsfield-Jackson still world?s busiest airport in 2011 - Atlanta Business Chronicle

So are you Atlantans proud of your airport? Or proud to be the home of the busiest airport in the world? If I lived there I think it would be pretty cool, and in some ways it puts Atlanta on an international presence level. Are you proud, or does it not matter to you?

BTW... I also think this will be Atlanta's last year at #1. Beijing's airport is climbing, and Southwest, I heard, is planning a smaller operation than AirTran had. Cutting the flights in and out of Atlanta, as well as not using it as a "hub". If not in 2012, it will move to #2 in 2013 (my guess)

[tonygeorgia]

We have access to the most direct flights at our airport than any other airport in north America. We will still be #1 because the new international terminal is opening very soon

[ATLTJL]

I am by no means a world, or even much of a national traveler.

However, it always amazes me to hear how so many people complain about how confusing Atlanta's airport is. I think the layout makes complete and perfect sense and the signage is awesome. I really can't figure out how anybody would not be able to figure the airport out.

O'hare, on the other hand, is a complete disaster. Signage is awful and the layout seems totally random.

6 terminals, with a train that goes between them all. It doesn't get any simpler than that. I bet that in Hartsfield you can never be more than a 15 minute walk from any one point to any one other point. That's not true at many airports.

And I refuse to call it Hartsfield-Jackson. It's Hartsfield

Don't give in, or else in 10 years it will be Hartsfield-Jackson-Franklin-Reed.

I'm very proud of the airport, mostly because of how well put together it is over how many people go through it. I would, however, like to see better food options. I would also like to see more businesses move from the terminals to the concourse. That would make more sense because the terminal layout is left over from the days where you didn't need a ticket to pass the security checkpoint.

[jaxontwinz]

^^^^ I also would think that the layout is easy for everybody. Maybe just the North/South check-in and security may be confusing.
Southwest will probably have a negative effect on the airport.

[GRS86]

Even though Southwest will have a smaller, more efficient operation than the current Airtran, Hartsfield-Jackson has a comfortable enough lead over O'hare to the point where it should remain that lead for years to come. Of course, how fast Beijing grows will determine if HJAIA ultimately retains its title as the world's busiest.

[readyset]

Well, Beijing had about 69-70 million passengers in 2010 for 2011 it was about 73 million, I read somewhere that they are building another Beijing airport as well. So Atlanta seems to have a good lead over everybody, the 20 million gap would be another airport of fairly large size.

[lastminutemom]

Why do you think that Southwest will have a negative impact? (Curious)

I was down at the state capitol this week and attended a hearing of the economic development committee.

Airports, not just Hartsfield, are essential to economic development. Companies have executives who want easy access (sometimes private planes) and manufacturers who need to be able to get shipments of parts quickly (not large deliveries, but the occasional missing part). GA has many airports spread out across the state, mostly small, but they are an essential cog in the economy of GA.

[GRS86]

Another key point is that HJAIA serves a much larger geographical area than almost any other major airport. The next closest major hub airport to HJAIA is Charlotte Douglas, which is over 200 miles away. Birmingham Shuttlesworth isn't all of that large of an airport. Chattanooga's service is limited, and air service from the other large GA cities except Savannah is woefully deficient. Atlanta, Philadelphia, and Detroit are the only three large metros that are served by a single passenger airport. In the case of Philadelphia, you have four major commercial airports (EWR, LGA, JFK, BWI) within a 100 radius. In the case of Detroit, you have both Flint and Toledo, within an hour. While not major airports, Flint and Toledo do have flights to some of the major hub airports, and can be somewhat of an alternative to Detroit Metro. With most other major airports being located in reasonably close proximity of each other, I'd say that Hartsfield-Jackson's domestic title as busiest airport is safe for the foreseeable future.

[testa50]

Yes it's a big deal to Atlantans. To me, the bigger deal is actually international flights increasing 7.7%, which is really good. I'm more excited about Atlanta being an international gateway than a regional hub.

It is likely that Beijing will overtake us, although there are a few factors working against them (capacity issues, a slowing Chinese economy, and massive investments in bullet trains).

Southwest taking over is probably not good for our overall passenger counts. Hopefully a rebounding economy and new international terminal will help close the gap.