Atlanta Airport is #1 in US for Transit Access (Jackson: mover, home)

[Caleb Longstreet]

Originally Posted by jsvh

Atlanta airport gets top marks for transit | www.ajc.com



As a frequent user of transit that used to do a lot of business travel and now works in the airport area, we should not neglect how important transit is to the airport (and in turn how important the airport is the the metro Atlanta economy).

Which begs an interesting, at least to me, question as to why Southwest Airlines is basically abandoning the airport? If I understand it correctly, the reduced the amount of the recently acquired Air-Tran flights by roughly 40% thus allowing Delta to start sticking it to everyone based on the reduced competition?

80% of the US population lives within 2 hours flight time of this airport. Ergo, the reason it's "Number 1". Soooooo, Southwest cuts themselves out of this potentially steady and reasonably profitable market? I know that some of those planes travelled to destinations they don't serve and I get that. I also know that bigger is not always better but, when you are potentially serving 70% of the US population on a regular basis, why walk? If anything, get bigger?

Anyone from SW want to weigh-in on this one? I know Atlanta is not their favorite hub based on it's intrinsic culture but, it's sheer logistics. Go to ATL, get a lot of customers....repeat....

[tikigod311]

I don't understand why they don't let people who want to get to the domestic side go through security as someone with a connecting flight would. Not perfect, but it could be better than the bus and its how they used to do it.

[tikigod311]

Originally Posted by Caleb Longstreet

Anyone from SW want to weigh-in on this one? I know Atlanta is not their favorite hub based on it's intrinsic culture but, it's sheer logistics. Go to ATL, get a lot of customers....repeat....

The only explanation I ever heard is that Delta would lower their prices on every competing route making it hard to be profitable in Atlanta.

[Caleb Longstreet]

Originally Posted by tikigod311

The only explanation I ever heard is that Delta would lower their prices on every competing route making it hard to be profitable in Atlanta.

But AirTran did that...for years. They competed head to head and that's business in general. Gas costs X, planes cost X, labor costs X...neither lost money in the market. My guess is that they can just make more NOT competing head to head....why chase that oh so pitiful margin Atl to NYC when you can wax someone from Birmingham to NYC?

To some extent, I get it but, how many people fly that route? Regularly? I guess it's fine as they do tend to be successful and always show a profit soooooo, they have probably figured it out long ago....just curious...seems so tempting to keep doing what Air-Tran did less the grouchy crews and bring in a can-do culture instead of the Air-Tran FU culture....seems they could give Delta a run....Air-Tran did and they were horrible when it came to service.

[JPD]

Originally Posted by magnetar

When you return to ATL from an international flight you have to clear customs after getting off the plane. You can't then go back through airport security to get on the plane train. I'm not sure that even if you could it would be more convenient than the shuttle to the domestic terminal.

I've only taken the shuttle once so far. Three weeks ago. It took almost 20 minutes of driving time to get to domestic, plus five minutes of sitting there waiting for it to leave. On top of that, there was absolutely no signage at all for a MARTA shuttle. So, I think the plane train would be far more convenient.

[J2201987]

Originally Posted by AtlantaIsHot

Would it be possible for the Hartsfield subway to be extended over to the new international terminal, thus ensuring that international passengers can get to the MARTA station without much effort?

There was a planned Clayton County via Hapeville line following the NS corridor that would pass the Hartsfield international side but if would have been hundreds of feet away. Though if I was a MARTA engineer (and the Authority had billions of dollars to play with) I would have designed that line to tunnel directly under the international terminal for a station and come out south of I285 to Clayton.

[sedimenjerry]

It is pretty simple from domestic to downtown. When I went to Philly there wasn't near as much info, you just boarded the train and then boarded. 8 bucks one way to downtown, if you buy a ticket in advance it's 6.50 but of course that's not advertised very well and you can't buy tickets in advance. The breezepass or whatever it's called is much simpler and there's no zone fare. However, after getting to downtown Philly is better, you can take Amtrak to a lot of other cities nearby. Amtrak even does a hybrid commuter rail.

[cqholt]

Originally Posted by AtlantaIsHot

Would it be possible for the Hartsfield subway to be extended over to the new international terminal, thus ensuring that international passengers can get to the MARTA station without much effort?

The plane train goes to the international terminal, but flyers must recheck their bags.

[Atlwarrior]

Originally Posted by Caleb Longstreet

Which begs an interesting, at least to me, question as to why Southwest Airlines is basically abandoning the airport? If I understand it correctly, the reduced the amount of the recently acquired Air-Tran flights by roughly 40% thus allowing Delta to start sticking it to everyone based on the reduced competition?

80% of the US population lives within 2 hours flight time of this airport. Ergo, the reason it's "Number 1". Soooooo, Southwest cuts themselves out of this potentially steady and reasonably profitable market? I know that some of those planes travelled to destinations they don't serve and I get that. I also know that bigger is not always better but, when you are potentially serving 70% of the US population on a regular basis, why walk? If anything, get bigger?

Anyone from SW want to weigh-in on this one? I know Atlanta is not their favorite hub based on it's intrinsic culture but, it's sheer logistics. Go to ATL, get a lot of customers....repeat....

Yes Southwest cuts have been significant, even to the point of Atlanta losing it's world busiest title ranking. Some would say that Southwest only flies from point to point versus the hub and spoke system like, Delta, but what is Dallas Love Field, Austin, Houston Hobby, and Baltimore as Southwest continues to route more customer and flights through those cities. Some say Southwest only took over Air Tran because the former airline was taking East coast market share from Southwest.

Now that the fully Air Tran/Southwest intergration is done. Let's see if some additional growth can now come to Atlanta from Southwest.

[JMatl]

Originally Posted by Atlwarrior

Yes Southwest cuts have been significant, even to the point of Atlanta losing it's world busiest title ranking. Some would say that Southwest only flies from point to point versus the hub and spoke system like, Delta, but what is Dallas Love Field, Austin, Houston Hobby, and Baltimore as Southwest continues to route more customer and flights through those cities. Some say Southwest only took over Air Tran because the former airline was taking East coast market share from Southwest.

Now that the fully Air Tran/Southwest intergration is done. Let's see if some additional growth can now come to Atlanta from Southwest.

It has been significant. We are down from 265 daily flights at AirTran's peak, to around 130 or so daily now with Southwest.

It's sad, as they have cut many popular routes from here and reduced frequency big time on markets they kept.