Aviation Specials – May 2018

Extreme Airports // 9

ATLANTA

network was expanded in 1956 to include

Washington DC and New York.

Despite continuing to grow, Delta – along

with most other US carriers – operated

over a point-to-point network. This model

came about as the federal government

compelled airlines to fly directly between

small markets, resulting in many

services being half full and businesses

losing money. The industry was finally

deregulated in 1978, leaving airlines free to

choose routes without interference from

the Civil Aeronautics Board. Delta was the

first to seize the opportunity to experiment

with a spoke system radiating from its

headquarters, which was within two-hour

flying time from 80% of the US population.

But long before Atlanta became the

busy hub it is today, its municipal airport

was struggling to handle the traffic the

hometown airline generated.

From little acorns

In 1909, the Coca-Cola company built a

car racetrack on open land 10 miles (16km)

south of Atlanta. By 1923 the facility had

become derelict and two years later city

mayor Walter Sims signed a five-year

rent-free agreement to develop the site

as an airfield, subject to it being named

Candler Field (after Asa Candler, a past

CEO of Coca-Cola and former mayor

of Atlanta). The first flight, a Florida

Airways mail service from Jacksonville,

arrived on September 15, 1926. Pitcairn

Aviation, a forerunner of Eastern Airlines,

began carrying mail between New York

and Atlanta two years later, and Delta

followed suit in June 1930. From then on,

throughput went up rapidly and Candler

Field was third in the USA behind New

York and Chicago for passenger traffic

by the end of the decade. However, ‘busy’

meant something different in the early

1940s than it does now – at the time, the

airport handled a mere 16 arrivals and 16

departures every day.

The facility was renamed Atlanta

Municipal in 1942, and by the end of the

year it was being used by 1m ppa. There

was a dip in traffic during World War

Two when the armed forces occupied

the airfield, but soon afterward traffic

started to grow again. The original 1932

terminal reached its capacity limit following

the introduction of larger four-engined

aircraft in the early 1940s, and a temporary

replacement built around a World War

Two Quonset hangar opened in May

1942. It featured – among other things

• the longest ticket counter in the USA
  measuring 200ft (61m), an observation
  deck that overlooked the aircraft parking
  areas, and short rudimentary single-storey
  ground-level ‘piers’ along which people
  walked before boarding an aircraft. It was
  not unusual for passengers to be allowed
  to wait outside on the edge of the apron
  before boarding, especially during the
  peak summer months when temperatures
  regularly topped 30oC (86oF).
  By the mid-1950s, Atlanta Municipal
  Airport had become the busiest transfer
  hub in the world and throughput
  exceeded the capacity of the temporary
  terminal facilities. In 1957 ATL handled
  an annual total of 2m ppa and had 165
  weekday departures, while between
  noon and 1400 every day it was also the
  world’s busiest airport with 45 inbound
  and outbound movements. Two longer
  piers were added to the basic structure in
  1957, opening up more gates and aircraft

TOP LEFT:

Airbridges were

not available on

most stands.

(AirTeamImages.

com/The Samba

Collection)

TOP RIGHT:

Atlanta’s terminal

was the world’s

largest in 1981.

(Wikimedia

Commons / qwesy

qwesy)

ABOVE LEFT:

A Northwest

Airlines Boeing

707-351C at the

‘jet age’ terminal.

(AirTeamImages.

com/The Samba

Collection)

A Delta Air Lines

737-200 taxies

past Concourse B.

(BravoNovember/

Aviation Image

Network)

ABOVE / ABOVE

RIGHT: Eastern

Air Lines used

Atlanta until 1991.

(BravoNovember/

Aviation Image

Network)

Concourse D

handles regional

jets flown by

Delta’s commuter

partners.

(Wikimedia

Commons/

Reglegsfan21)

AIRPORT STATISTICS

IATA code: AT L

ICAO code: KATL

Location: N33°38.20’ W84°25.67’

Elevation: 1,026ft (313m)

Runways: 08L/26R 9,000 x 150ft

(2,743 x 46m)

08R/26L 9,999 x 150ft

(3,048 x 46m)

09L/27R 12,390 x 150ft

(3,776 x 46m)

09R/27L 9,000 x 150ft

(2,743 x 46m)

10/28 9,000 x 150ft

(2,743 x 46m)

Frequencies: Approach 127.9, 128.

Departure 125.65, 125.7, 135.

Ground 121.65, 121.75, 121.9, 127.

Tower 119.1, 119.3, 119.5,

123.85, 125.

Website: http://www.atl.com

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