User:Chaswmsday/Hartsfield–Jackson Atlanta International Airport

thumb|right|A line of automated and staffed ticketing counters for [[Delta Air Lines|Delta, Atlanta's major tenant airline.]] Hartsfield–Jackson Atlanta International Airport, known locally as Atlanta Airport, Hartsfield Airport, and Hartsfield–Jackson, is located seven miles (11 km) south of the central business district of Atlanta, Georgia, United States. It has been the world's busiest airport by passenger traffic and number of landings and take-offs since 2005, serving 89 million passengers per year. The airport is the primary hub of AirTran Airways, Delta Air Lines, and Delta Connection partner ExpressJet; the Delta hub is the world's largest airline hub. Delta Air Lines flew 59.01% of passengers from the airport in February 2011, AirTran flew 17.76%, and Atlantic Southeast Airlines flew 13.86%. The airport has 199 gates, domestic and international.

Hartsfield–Jackson held its ranking as the world's busiest airport in 2010, both in terms of passengers and number of flights, by accommodating 89 million passengers (243,000 passengers daily) and 950,119 flights. Many of the nearly one million flights are domestic flights from within the United States, where Atlanta serves as a major hub for travel throughout the Southeastern United States.

Hartsfield–Jackson International Airport has international service to North America, South America, Central America, Europe, Asia, and Africa. As an international gateway to the United States, Hartsfield–Jackson ranks seventh. The airport is located mostly in unincorporated areas in Fulton and Clayton counties; the city limits of Atlanta, College Park, and Hapeville extend to the airport grounds. The airport is served by MARTA's Red/Gold rail line.

History
thumb|left|Hartsfield-Jackson Atlanta International Airport's [[Air traffic control Tower]] Hartsfield–Jackson had its beginnings with a five-year, rent-free lease on 287 acre that was the home of an abandoned auto racetrack. The lease was signed on April 16, 1925, by Mayor Walter Sims, who committed the city to develop it into an airfield. As part of the agreement, the property was renamed Candler Field after its former owner, Coca-Cola tycoon and former Atlanta mayor Asa Candler. The first flight into Candler Field was on September 15, 1926, a Florida Airways mail plane flying from Jacksonville, Florida. In May 1928, Pitcairn Aviation began service to Atlanta, followed in June 1930 by Delta Air Service. Later these two airlines, known as Eastern Air Lines and Delta Air Lines, respectively, would both use Atlanta as their chief hubs.

It was a busy airport from its inception and by the end of 1930 it placed third behind New York City and Chicago for regular daily flights with sixteen arriving and departing. Candler Field's first control tower was opened March 1939.

In October 1940, the U.S. government declared it a military airfield and the United States Army Air Force operated Atlanta Army Airfield jointly with Candler Field. The Air Force used the airport primarily for the servicing of transient aircraft, with many different types of combat aircraft being maintained at the airport. During World War II, the airport doubled in size and set a record of 1,700 takeoffs and landings in a single day, making it the nation's busiest airport in terms of flight operation. Atlanta Army Airfield closed after war's end.

In 1946 Candler Field was renamed Atlanta Municipal Airport and by 1948, more than one million passengers passed through a war surplus hangar that served as a terminal building. During the postwar regulated period, both Delta and Eastern operated an extensive route network from ATL to destinations throughout the United States. Southern Airways also established itself at ATL shortly after the war and maintained a network of short-haul routes around the Southeast through 1979.

On June 1, 1956 an Eastern flight to Montreal, Canada was the first international flight out of Atlanta. (Atlanta's first scheduled international flight was the Delta/Pan Am interchange DC-8 to Europe starting in 1964; the first scheduled nonstop to a foreign country was Eastern's flight to Mexico City around 1972.) In 1957 Atlanta saw its first jet airliner: a prototype Sud Aviation Caravelle that was touring the country arrived from Washington D.C. Atlanta was the busiest airport in the country with more than two million passengers passing through that year and, between noon and 2 p.m. each day, it became the busiest airport in the world. (The April 1957 OAG shows 165 weekday departures from Atlanta, including 45 between 12:05 and 2:00 PM (and 20 between 2:25 and 4:25 AM). Chicago Midway had 414 weekday departures, including 48 between 12:00 and 2:00 PM. For the year 1957 Atlanta was the ninth busiest airline airport in the country by flight count and about the same by passenger count.)

That same year, work on a new terminal began to help alleviate congestion. On May 3, 1961, a new $21 million terminal opened. It was the largest in the country and was able to accommodate over six million travelers a year. The new airport was stretched past its capacity the very first year when nine and half million people passed through. In March 1962 the longest runway (9/27, now 8R) was 7860 ft; runway 3 was 5505 ft and runway 15 was 7220 ft.

In 1967, the city of Atlanta and the airlines began to work on a master plan for future development of Atlanta Municipal Airport. Construction began on the present midfield terminal in January 1977 under the administration of Mayor Maynard Jackson. It was the largest construction project in the South, costing $500 million. Named for former Atlanta mayor William Berry Hartsfield, who did much to promote air travel, William B. Hartsfield Atlanta International Airport opened on September 21, 1980, on-time and under budget. It was designed to accommodate up to 55 million passengers per year and covered 2.5 million square feet (230,000 m²). In December 1984 a 9000 ft fourth parallel runway was completed, and another runway was extended to 11889 ft the following year.

Although Eastern was a larger airline than Delta until airline deregulation in 1978, Delta was an early adopter of the hub and spoke route system, with Atlanta as its primary hub between the Midwest and Florida, giving it an early competitive advantage in the Atlanta market. Eastern ceased operations in 1991 due to labor issues and competition throughout the Eastern seaboard, leaving Delta with the only major airline hub in Atlanta. American Airlines considered establishing an Atlanta hub around the time of Eastern's demise, but determined that Delta was already too fortified there, and that the competitive environment was more favorable at Eastern's other hub in Miami.

ValuJet was established in 1993 to provide low-cost competition for Delta at ATL following Eastern's demise. Its safety practices were called into question early in its life, and the airline was temporarily grounded after the 1996 crash of ValuJet Flight 592. It resumed operations in 1997 as AirTran Airways and remains the second-largest airline at ATL today. AirTran was acquired by Southwest Airlines in 2011 and Southwest plans to integrate its operations with AirTran in the future.

In May 2001, construction of a 9000 ft fifth runway (10–28) began. It was completed at a cost of $1.28 billion and opened on May 27, 2006, and was the first runway added since 1984. It bridges Interstate 285 (the Perimeter) on the south side of the airport, making Hartsfield-Jackson the only civilian airport in the nation to currently have a runway above an interstate (although Runway 17R/35L at Stapleton International Airport in Denver crossed Interstate 70 until that airport was closed in 1995). The massive project, which involved putting fill dirt eleven-stories high in some places, destroyed some surrounding neighborhoods, and dramatically changed the scenery of two cemeteries on the property, Flat Rock Cemetery and Hart Cemetery. It was added to help ease some of the traffic problems caused by landing small- and mid-size aircraft on the longer runways which are also used by larger planes such as the Boeing 777, which generally require longer takeoff distances than the smaller planes. With the fifth runway, Hartsfield–Jackson is one of only a few airports that can perform triple simultaneous landings. The fifth runway is expected to increase the capacity for landings and take-offs by 40%, from an average of 184 flights per hour to 237 flights per hour.

Along with the construction of the fifth runway, a new control tower was built to see the entire length of the runway. The new control tower is the tallest airport control tower in the United States, with a height of over 398 ft. The old control tower, 585 ft away from the new control tower, was demolished August 5, 2006.

Atlanta City Council voted on October 20, 2003 to change the name from Hartsfield Atlanta International Airport to the current Hartsfield–Jackson Atlanta International Airport, in honor of former mayor Maynard Jackson, who died on June 23, 2003. The council initially planned on renaming the airport solely for Mayor Jackson, but public outcry, especially by Mayor Hartsfield's descendants, prompted the compromise.

In April 2007, an "end-around taxiway" opened, called Taxiway Victor. It is expected to save an estimated $26 million to $30 million in fuel each year by allowing airplanes landing on the northernmost runway to taxi to the gate area without preventing other aircraft from taking off. The taxiway drops approximately 30 ft from the runway elevation to allow takeoffs to continue.

As a result of the Southeastern U.S. drought of 2007, the airport (the eighth-largest water user in the state) has made changes to reduce water usage. This includes adjusting toilets, of which there are 725 commodes and 338 urinals, in addition to 601 sinks. (The two terminals alone use 917,000 gallons or about 3.5 million liters each day in average.) It also suspended the practice of using firetrucks to spray water over aircraft when the pilot made a last landing before retirement (a water salute). The city of Macon offered to sell water to the airport, through a proposed pipeline.

The airport today employs approximately 55,300 airline, ground transportation, concessionaire, security, federal government, City of Atlanta and Airport tenant employees and is considered the largest employment center in the U.S. state of Georgia. With a payroll of $2.4 billion, the airport has a direct and indirect economic impact of $3.2 billion on the local and regional economy and a total annual, regional economic impact of more than $19.8 billion.

Expansion and renovations
thumb|[[Delta Air Lines McDonnell Douglas MD-88 taking off]] thumb|A view of the International Concourse E and Control Tower at night

In 1999, Hartsfield–Jackson's leadership established the Development Program: "Focus On the Future" involving multiple construction projects with the intention of preparing the airport to handle a projected demand of 121 million passengers in 2015. The program was originally budgeted at $5.4 billion over a ten-year period, but due to project delays and increased construction costs, the total is now projected at over $9 billion.

Hartsfield–Jackson Rental Car Center
The Hartsfield–Jackson Rental Car Center, which opened on December 8, 2009, houses all ten current airport rental agencies with capacity for additional companies. The complex features 9,900 parking spaces split up between two four-story parking decks that together cover 2800000 sqft, a 137000 sqft customer service center, and a maintenance center for vehicles, which features 140 gas pumps,and 30 bays for washing with each one equipped with a water recovery system. The automated people mover, nicknamed the ATL Skytrain, (using Mitsubishi Crystal Mover equipment) connects the facility to the airport and to the Gateway Center of the Georgia International Convention Center and the Hartsfield–Jackson Rental Car Center. A four-lane roadway was built across Interstate 85 to connect the Hartsfield–Jackson Rental Car Center to the existing airport road network.

Maynard H. Jackson Jr. International Terminal
In July 2003, then-Atlanta mayor Shirley Franklin announced a new terminal to be named for Maynard H. Jackson, Jr.. The new international terminal would be built on the east side of the airport near International Concourse E, on a site that had been occupied by air cargo facilities and the midfield control tower. It would add twelve new gates able to hold wide-body jets, which can be converted to sixteen narrow-body gates, as well as new check-in desks and a baggage claim area solely for international carriers. Additionally, the international terminal would have its own parking lot just for international passengers with over 1,100 spaces. Arriving international passengers whose final destination is Atlanta would be able to keep possession of their luggage as they proceed to exit the airport. Currently, such passengers must "recheck" their luggage and clear long security lines, along with transit passengers, at Concourse E. Then, they must enter the underground Transportation Mall to reach the main terminal where they must "reclaim" their luggage. The new terminal will be connected to Terminal E by the people mover tram and will also have ground transportation access via I-75. The new terminal was slated to open in 2006; however, time and cost overruns led then Airport General Manager Ben DeCosta to cancel the design contract in August 2005. The next day, the architect sued the airport claiming "fraud" and "bad faith", blaming the airport authority for the problems. In early 2007, the General Manager awarded a new design contract on the new international terminal to Atlanta Gateway Designers (AGD). Construction began in the summer of 2008. During late 2011, the construction is progressing rapidly with the exterior and interior almost completed. Estimates place the terminal's cost at $1.4 billion, and it is expected to open in April 2012.

Also scheduled to be completed after the new international terminal and concourse is a new terminal south of the current terminals. The project is currently known as the South Gate Complex, and is expected to include up to 70 gates at an estimated cost of approximately $1.8 billion. The new terminal will be connected to the main terminal by an expanded automated people mover system. When the South Gate Complex is completed, it is expected that most domestic carriers other than Delta will move to the SGC. This would leave Delta as the sole domestic carrier at the current terminal, which it will share with its SkyTeam partners. Since the SGC is not planned to have Customs and Border Protection facilities, international arrivals other than pre-cleared flights will also continue to use the current terminal (specifically British Airways and Lufthansa).

Accommodating the A380
In addition to the terminal that will expand international operations at the airport, Sections of some midfield taxiways will be widened from 145 feet (44.2 m) to 162 feet (49.4 m), and a section of Runway 27R will be widened from 220 feet (67.1 m) to 250 feet (76.2m) in order to accommodate the Airbus A380 operations at the airport. Air France and Korean Air are considering whether they will commence A380 service from Atlanta once these sections of the taxiway and runway are completed. Additionally, two adjacent gates on the current International Concourse, Concourse E, will be fitted to allow lower-level boarding from one gate, and upper-level boarding from the other, allowing for quick boarding and the facilitation of passengers to other connecting flights around the airport.

Modernization of Concourse D
On June 6, 2011, Atlanta City Council awarded a contract to the joint venture of Holder/Moody/Bryson to renovate and expand Concourse D. There will be an additional 60,000 sqft of space, two new escalators between the main level and the Transportation Mall, three new elevators between the second and third levels, and there will be both expanded and new food, beverage and retail outlets. The project budget is not to exceed $37 million and it is set for completion by spring 2014.

Layout
thumb|right|The Transportation Mall. The portion between Concourse T and Concourse A also includes African-themed artwork and photographs

Hartsfield–Jackson Atlanta International Airport has a terminal and concourse space totaling 5800000 sqft. The airport has two terminals where passengers check-in and claim bags, the North Terminal and the South Terminal. The two terminals are part of a larger building. The portions of the building between the two terminals include the Atrium, which is a large, open seating area featuring concessionaires, a bank, conference rooms, an interfaith chapel, and offices on the upper floors with the main security checkpoint, the Ground Transportation Center and a Metropolitan Atlanta Rapid Transit Authority (MARTA) train station on other levels.

Six parallel concourse buildings are used for passenger boarding. The first concourse is connected to the main terminal, and is known as Concourse T (for Terminal). The remaining five concourses are designated successively by distance from the terminal as Concourses A, B, C, D, and E. Concourse E replaced Concourse T as the international terminal when it opened in 1994 in time for the 1996 Summer Olympic Games, which were held in Atlanta. International passengers who arrive in Atlanta are subjected to a security re-check after clearing customs due to a design flaw that routes these passengers into the concourse instead of the main terminal lobby. The concourses are connected by an underground Transportation Mall, which begins at the main terminal and passes under the center of each concourse. At one time, there was a second underground walkway between Concourses B and C which connected the north end of the two concourses and made it possible to transfer without returning to the center of the concourse. This was constructed for Eastern Airlines, who occupied these two terminals. This is now closed and the entrance at Concourse B has been replaced by a bank of arrival/departure monitors.

thumb|left|A concourse entrance to the underground [[Hartsfield–Jackson Atlanta International Airport Automated People Mover|people mover.]]

Automated People Mover
In addition to a pedestrian walkway, which includes a series of moving walkways, connecting the concourses, the Transportation Mall also features an automated people mover. The Automated People Mover has a station at the east end of the main terminal for passengers who have cleared security screening and are entering the Transportation Mall. This station also serves as the station for Concourse T. Other stations are located at each of the five concourses. A seventh station is located in the Baggage Claim area, directly under the Main Terminal. Only hand luggage may be carried on the people mover which is the world's busiest automated system, with over 64 million riders in 2002.

On August 10, 2010, the automated people mover was named "The Plane Train". Previously it had not been given an official name.

MARTA Station
Hartsfield–Jackson also has its own train station on the city's rapid transit system, MARTA. The above-ground station is inside in the main building, between the north and south terminals on the west end. The Airport train station is currently the southernmost station in the MARTA system.

Terminals, airlines, and destinations
The seven concourses and their gates are:


 * Concourse T – 14 gates (T1–T5, T7-T15)
 * Concourse A – 34 gates (A1–A34)
 * Concourse B – 35 gates (B1–B34, B36)
 * Concourse C – 37 gates (C1–C22, C30–C57)
 * Concourse D – 33 gates (D1, D1A–D8, D8A–D11, D11A–D16, D21–D46)
 * Concourse E – 29 gates (E1–E12, E14–E18, E26–E37)
 * Concourse F – 12 gates (F1-F10, F12, F14, terminal opens in Spring 2012)
 * Note: All international arrivals (except flights with customs pre-clearance) are handled at Concourse E.

Crashes en route

 * April 4, 1977 Southern Airways Flight 242 (Huntsville to Atlanta, crashed en route in New Hope, Georgia). 72 fatalities (including 9 on the ground).  There were 22 survivors.
 * September 6, 1985 Midwest Express Airlines Flight 105 (Milwaukee to Atlanta, crashed on takeoff at the airport in Milwaukee, Wisconsin). 31 fatalities: 27 passengers and 4 crew members.  There were no survivors.
 * August 21, 1995 Atlantic Southeast Airlines Flight 529, crashed near Carrollton, Georgia while on a flight from the Hartsfield–Jackson Atlanta International Airport to Gulfport-Biloxi International Airport in Gulfport, Mississippi.  26 were on board with 9 fatalities and 17 survivors.
 * May 11, 1996 ValuJet Flight 592 (Miami to Atlanta, crashed en route from Miami International Airport in the Florida Everglades) 110 fatalities: 105 passengers and 5 crew members, there were no survivors.
 * August 27, 2006 Comair Flight 191 operating as Delta Connection Flight 5191 (Lexington to Atlanta, crashed on takeoff at the Blue Grass Airport) 47 passengers and 3 crew members were on board. There were 49 fatalities.  The only survivor was the first officer (co-pilot).

Public safety
On November 16, 2001, a man left the secure area to retrieve his camera bag, which he had left behind, and then tried to bypass the wait at the security checkpoint by running the wrong way down the escalators at the secure area's exit. As a result, the entire airport was evacuated, including all aircraft, and operations halted for three hours.

The man said that he tried to bypass the security line because he would be late for a flight he was taking to see a Georgia Bulldogs football game. As part of his sentence, he was not allowed to attend any Bulldogs games for the 2002 season.

From December 2006 to March 2007, there were 30 arrests for indecent exposure involving reported sex acts in airport restrooms. Several prominent persons were arrested, including an advisor for the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, a Spelman College professor, and the Chairman of the Metropolitan Atlanta Rapid Transit Authority board of directors.

Lightning strike
In 2009, a severe thunderstorm on the evening of April 23 caused a lightning strike directly to the control tower at 8:45 (20:45) EDT. The airport was already in a ground stop due to dangerous wind shear, and four minutes after the strike, the tower was evacuated after a smoke odor was detected. After returning at 9:10, a power outage at 9:20 caused further problems, including major flight delays and diversions due also to the lightning (at over 1000 strikes per hour) and large amounts of hail that continued in the vicinity. Partial power outages continued to affect the airport and the northern runway lighting for more than an hour afterward, leaving only three other runways to handle the backlog. An FAA official said that neither the new nor the old tower had been struck in at least 18 years. Several storm chasers east of the airport reported a wall cloud and descending funnel over the airport during the severe thunderstorm.

Culture
As the dominant airport in the Southern United States, and the nation's busiest in terms of passengers handled (mainly due to being Delta's flagship hub), there is an old joke in the South which states that, upon one's death, regardless of whether one goes to Heaven or Hell one will connect in Atlanta to get there.

Hartsfield is the setting for the song "Terminals" by Relient K.

Scenes from the movies Due Date and Life As We Know It were filmed and had scenes take place on location at Hartsfield Airport in 2010.

In the Futurama episode, "The Deep South" it is revealed that in the future, Atlanta moved to the sea, where it becomes "a center for tourism and an even bigger Delta hub"

Other notes
Air traffic controllers for tower and ground control operations refer to the letter "D" using the word "Dixie" instead of the ICAO phonetic term "Delta" to avoid confusion with Delta Air Lines aircraft (note the use of "DIXIE" for taxiway "D" in the FAA's airport diagram 2007, linked in the box at the top of this page). In the actual diagram the spot where "DIXIE" was to be found is in the "non movement aerea" to the left of the construction aerea for the new concourse.

The People Mover's recorded announcements list "Concourse D as in David," rather than "Delta" or "Dixie."