Atlanta sues Paulding County over airport commercialization plans (Jackson, Hiram: buying, deed)

[skbl17]

They've threatened to do it, and now they've done it.

I don't know if this was already mentioned, but earlier this month the City of Atlanta sued Paulding County over its plans to commercialize the county's general aviation airport, Silver Comet Field.

Apparently, back in 1975, the CoA bought land in Paulding County for a second commercial airport. A decade ago, Paulding County bought some of the land back to build a general aviation airport (think Briscoe Field and PDK). While the county has since built a small airport there, Atlanta still owns most of the land it purchased in 1975, and they allege that Paulding County promised that the airport would always remain a general aviation airport. In the lawsuit, Atlanta seeks "forfeiture of the property, or a covenant added to the deed preventing the property from being used for any purpose other than general aviation."

It should be mentioned that the promise was not listed in the terms of the sale, so the lawsuit is based on "materials from Paulding officials in 2004, comments from then-manager of Hartsfield-Jackson Ben DeCosta at an Atlanta City Council meeting in 2007 and past correspondence from Blake Swafford, who was director of Paulding’s airport."

Delta, seeking to protect its massive hub at Hartsfield-Jackson, has backed the City of Atlanta.

What do you think?

As an aside, I should mention that while I do personally support a second Atlanta airport, I don't feel that Paulding County is the place for it. Despite the county's growth, Paulding is not served by any interstates or state freeways, the nearest public transit connection is GRTA Xpress bus service in Hiram, and the only major highway that connects Silver Comet Field with the rest of the metro area is US 278. Plus, I don't think Paulding County voters would be happy with the possibility of jumbo jets flying just overhead and the increased traffic on US 278 a commercial airport would bring. If the CoA loses the case and if Paulding was to go ahead with its plans, there would need to be - at a minimum - some kind of limited-access freeway to connect the airport with, say, I-20.

I'm not sure if any of this matters though, as further down the AJC takes note of what county voters have done:

Meanwhile, Paulding voters in recent years have elected several commissioners who oppose the commercialization of the airport, swinging the county commission from majority pro-commercialization to majority anti-commercialization. Today on the five-person commission, four county commissioners are against commercialization, while the county chairman David Carmichael is in favor of it.

- skbl17

[MattCW]

I'd like Atlanta to lose just to see them lose and so I can laugh at them a little.

[LTCM]

We've already got ours, so f off Paulding County.

- Atlanta

[bu2]

Its just Delta trying to make sure they control the Atlanta market and make flying expensive here. Southwest hasn't been able to make enough of a dent.

[jsvh]

Originally Posted by MattCW

I'd like Atlanta to lose just to see them lose and so I can laugh at them a little.

Sounds about like your approach to most topics here.

I am supportive of competition but I don't blame the city for fighting to keep the one airport. A second airport will cause the origin and destination traffic out of Atlanta to be split making making ATL much less viable as a major hub. That means you will see a lot of flights cut and a lot of jobs lost. A lot of those companies that locate to Atlanta due to having access to so many direct flight to the world will also reconsider.

But hey, some people just like to watch Atlanta burn.

[MattCW]

Originally Posted by jsvh

Sounds about like your approach to most topics here. *SNIP*

Uh...what? Got an examples?

[bu2]

Originally Posted by jsvh

Sounds about like your approach to most topics here.

I am supportive of competition but I don't blame the city for fighting to keep the one airport. A second airport will cause the origin and destination traffic out of Atlanta to be split making making ATL much less viable as a major hub. That means you will see a lot of flights cut and a lot of jobs lost. A lot of those companies that locate to Atlanta due to having access to so many direct flight to the world will also reconsider.

But hey, some people just like to watch Atlanta burn.

DFW is doing just fine coexisting with Love Field as a major airport and Meacham Field which has occasionally had commercial flights and still has international charters.

Miami is the biggest hub to South America despite Ft. Lauderdale Airport.

Houston Intercontinental is a big hub and the 2nd largest after Miami to Latin America despite having Hobby Airport with international service.

[jsvh]

Originally Posted by bu2

DFW is doing just fine coexisting with Love Field as a major airport and Meacham Field which has occasionally had commercial flights and still has international charters.

Miami is the biggest hub to South America despite Ft. Lauderdale Airport.

Houston Intercontinental is a big hub and the 2nd largest after Miami to Latin America despite having Hobby Airport with international service.

All of those are larger cities and smaller hubs than ATL. Most of those airports you name do half the volume of ATL.

Consider:

ATL: 5.6M Pop, 50M Pax
DFW: 7.2M Pop, 31M Pax
IAH: 6.5M Pop, 21M Pax
MIA: 5.6M Pop, 21M Pax

I am not saying all connecting traffic will stop in ATL, it will just take a serious hit. You can argue if that is "just fine" / "worth it" but if the Spaulding airport gains traction it is not unreasonable to expect ATL to see it passenger & flight volumes haved in a decade. And Atlanta has always been a hub of transportation so if you now take that away and only offer the same level of connectivity as any other metro its size and Atlanta loses a key competitive advantage.

[JMatl]

Originally Posted by bu2

Its just Delta trying to make sure they control the Atlanta market and make flying expensive here. Southwest hasn't been able to make enough of a dent.

Southwest is up to 125 daily flights here, it's one of their larger stations now.

I and many others wish they had never muscled their way into Atlanta buying out AirTran, a superior Airline in every way.

And Delta is no more expensive here than United is at IAH or American at DFW.

[Forhall]

Originally Posted by JMatl

Southwest is up to 125 daily flights here, it's one of their larger stations now.

I and many others wish they had never muscled their way into Atlanta buying out AirTran, a superior Airline in every way.

I support any airline coming to Atlanta and opposing Delta and their monopoly and high fares.