ATLANTA
12 // Extreme Airportsmove to the centre of the vehicle and away
from the doors.” Hal was replaced by a
human voice in 1994 but a public outcry
ensued and ‘he’ was quickly reinstated –
before fi nally being swapped for something
more understandable to foreign visitors
ahead of the 1996 Olympic Games.
At 0130 on September 21 fl ights stopped
using Atlanta’s ‘jet age’ terminal and its
doors were closed for good. Over the
course of just three hours, thousands of
pieces of ground equipment and as many
as 30 jet aircraft were moved across
Runway 08/26. By 0500 everything was
done and Atlanta had a new airport.
The massive step forward included an
increase in gates from 72 to 138 (99% with
airbridges rather than 50% previously)
and parking for 109 widebodies (versus
20). Even the number of spaces in the car
parks was doubled to 12,000.
From that moment onward, Delta
was able to schedule dozens of arrivals
and departures within minutes of each
other, enabling passengers to connect
between fl ights to almost anywhere in
the USA. To reduce walking distances
for the majority, larger aircraft such as
Lockheed TriStars and Douglas DC-8s
were parked near the middle of the
concourses closest to the transit system,
while the smaller aircraft used gates that
were further away. Convenient quick
transfers caused passenger numbers to
continue to climb inexorably, and a fourth
parallel runway opened in December
1984 to help reduce holding inbound and
outbound aircraft delays.
Eastern Air Lines – the second largest
carrier at Atlanta and one of the US ‘big
four’ (United, American, Eastern and
Delta) involved in the air mail scandal
that started this story 60 years earlier- collapsed on January 19, 1991, a victim
of labour disputes and high fuel prices.
Concourse C was shu ered almost
immediately and redundant jets were
parked at its gates where they remained
for several months pending disposal,
many of them going for scrap.
Eastern’s failure was a setback for ATL,
but numbers quickly recovered as other
fi rms fi lled the gaps. Delta’s stranglehold
put off some full-service airlines from
commi ing much more capacity to Atlanta,
but in 1993 locally-based no-frills carrier
ValuJet was formed. The newcomer
burgeoned thanks to the popularity of
its low fares, but it was grounded after
an horrifi c crash of one of its Douglas
DC-9s on May 11, 1996 caused 110 people
on board to lose their lives. The business
was subsequently resurrected in 1997
as AirTran Airways, and grew to become
the second largest user of ATL until it was
taken over by Southwest Airlines at the end
of 2014. Although the ValuJet story was
tragic, it opened Atlanta’s doors to cheap
point-to-point air travel, and Southwest is
still holds the second largest share of the
airport’s traffi c.International growth
International traffi c was much slower
to take off. At its inception Concourse
T was used only by British Caledonian,
Delta, Eastern, KLM Royal Dutch Airlines,
Lufthansa and Sabena, and even a decade
later the total had only increased to ten
foreign carriers. Nevertheless, Concourse
E was completed in 1994 in anticipation
of the 1996 Summer Olympics and Delta’s
long-haul operations were immediately
moved to the new facility, along with those
of 13 other foreign airlines that were
serving the facility by then. The transit
system was extended as well, although
travellers were also able to walk the 1.
miles (2.4km) between the new E-gates and
the main terminal.TRAFFIC STATISTICS
2017 103,902,
2016 104,258,
2015 101,491,
2014 96,178,
2013 94,431,
2012 94,956,
2011 92,389,
2010 88,001,
2009 90,039,
2008 89,379,
2007 84,846,
2006 85,907,
2005 83,606,
2004 79,087,
2003 76,876,
2002 75,858,
2001 80,162,
2000 78,092,AIRLINES – CARGO
Aerologic
AirBridgeCargo Airlines
Asiana Cargo
ASL Airlines Belgium
CAL Cargo Air Lines
CargoLogicAir
Cargolux
Cathay Pacifi c Cargo
China Airlines Cargo
China Cargo Airlines
DHL Aviation
EVA Air Cargo
FedEx Express
Korean Air Cargo
Lufthansa Cargo
Qatar Airways Cargo
Singapore Airlines Cargo
Turkish Airlines Cargo
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