The Marvel That Is Atlanta's Hartsfield….On A Good Day

Atlanta’s Hartsfield-Jackson International Airport is easily the busiest airport in the world when measured by passenger traffic.  Southerners and even some Atlantans curse the place due to its size.  It is often said that when you die, you still have to change planes in Atlanta in order to get to heaven.

Nevertheless, I remain a big fan of the place.  I was a child living in Atlanta when it opened in 1980 and I never missed the chance to visit it when a friend or relative was flying in.  Every politician even remotely connected with the mammoth undertaking never misses an opportunity to mention that it was completed on time and under budget.  At that time, it was a mere three runways served by four and a half concourses of about 35 gates each.  Today, it boasts five parallel runways that are in use simultaneously and a whopping 186 gates spread across six concourses.  Next year, they will inaugurate a new international terminal and concourse that will increase the total number of gates at the airport to over 200!

Hartsfield Today

It is just amazing how many people pass through the airport every day.  The concourses are almost never quiet, as they more closely resemble a crowded  New York street than a typical airport. When looking over the arriving and departing flight information, I am always amazed to see cities that I have never even heard of.  When you consider the remarkable connection opportunities, you begin to realize why the Atlanta airport is so busy.  Where else could you transfer from Muscle Shoals, Alabama to Moscow or from New Bern, North Carolina to Johannesburg?

What Makes It Great

It is simply a great design.  Long before 9/11, the visionary designers of Hartsfield made each concourse  accessible through a single security checkpoint.   Since there was no way that anyone could transit between more than a few dozen gates without walking over a mile, the airport was one of the first to have an automated people mover. This is basically a train that works without a conductor.  While passengers at other airports may twiddle their thumbs waiting for a train, Hartsfield passengers see a screen counting down the seconds until the next train arrives.  This amazing system rarely makes passengers wait more than 90 seconds between trains.  At each concourse, the airport has plenty of restaurants and shopping, so that once you reach your concourse you rarely have to go elsewhere.

Another great feature of the airport is a train station inside the terminal that whisks passengers to downtown Atlanta and points beyond.  A second train system takes people to a consolidated rental car center.  This is probably a pain in the but for some people, but it relieves a lot of the congestion around the terminals by eliminating fleets of rental car shuttles.

What Is Wrong With Hartsfield

Everything there does not work as perfectly as it did on my last visit.  Throw in a thunderstorm or even a hint of ice or snow and the place grinds to a halt.  At that point, the massive crowds of people become an extreme liability along with the airline’s continued inability to manage these eventualities.  While a wise traveler would use the train system evacuate the premises and find a hotel downtown, the masses end up camping out at the gates.

Another issue is that arriving international passengers clear customs at the furthest concourse, and are forced to recheck bags back to the terminal.  Worse, you have to re-clear security when you arrive, even if Atlanta is your final destination.   The new international terminal that is opening next year will fix this inherent problem with the current arrangement.  Furthermore, with a second terminal, the original terminal will see fewer crowds.   An entire South Gate complex is planned for the future that will feature 70 gates which will further reduce the chances that your aircraft will have to sit on the tarmac awaiting a gate.  Currently, that happens rather often.

Conclusions

It is impossible to have an airport that services hundreds of non-stop destinations without it existing on the scale of Hartsfield.  Most airports that approach the size of Hartsfield have grown organically, spreading across  many terminals  that cannot be accessed from each other without leaving security and taking a bus.  These airports include JFK, LAX, Heathrow and so many others.  Hartsfield’s arrangement is the best solution that I have seen for the problem of how to have an airport with 200 gates arranged so that you can get from any one gate to any other in about 15 minutes.  In the past 30 years, the airport has transformed the city from a regional backwater to a major international hub.