Ed Bastian Shoots Down The Idea Of A Second Atlanta Airport

Hartsfield-Jackson Atlanta International Airport is the world’s busiest airport, and the largest hub for Delta Air Lines. It served nearly 110 million passengers last year, bringing it back to pre-pandemic levels. Airport management, through its multi-billion-dollar ATLNext capital improvement program, is focused on modernizing the airport’s infrastructure and increasing operational capacity, with the goal of being able to serve 140 million passengers within a few years.

The obvious question is, why doesn’t Atlanta just build a second airport to relieve the pressure on a single hub? After all, most large US cities have more than one airport. But at a recent event, Delta CEO Ed Bastian shot down the idea, saying “a single airport in Atlanta has been one of the keys to our city’s success, and it’s going to be vital to its future.”

Bastian Dimisses The Idea Of A Second Atlanta Airport

Delta Air Lines

Bastian was speaking alongside Ricky Smith, the new general manager at ATL, at an Atlanta Press Club event moderated by the Atlanta Journal-Constitution. He said that Delta is “very focused on improving the overall customer experience” at its fortress hub, acknowledging that “while it’s a great transit hub, we could be a better welcoming location as well.”

To this end, he notes that Delta and the airport have been making major investments in the expansion and modernization of the Central Passenger Terminal Complex (CPTC), highlighting improvements to the baggage handling system, security checkpoints, retail spaces, and information technology infrastructure. He also emphasized that “our future growth in Atlanta is international travel,” and said a priority is adding a luxury Delta One Lounge in Atlanta as well.

International traffic at ATL grew by 14% last year, far outpacing domestic traffic growth. Bastian and Smith were asked about the option of Atlanta building a second airport, and Smith said that, given the investment and growth opportunities at ATL, the discussion was “premature”. Bastian, unsurprisingly, was much more forceful in his response, emphasizing that Delta, the airport, and the City of Atlanta need to continue investing in an airport asset that is the envy of the world:

“There’s not a city in this country that wouldn’t die to have something like Hartsfield-Jackson in its backyard, with all the capabilities it brings. We need to capitalize on this world-leading asset that we have, and continue to invest in building an even larger, faster, and more economically-responsible model. A second airport is a distraction that would divert capital and traffic flows for a very low-end purpose.”

ATL Is Planning For 140 Million Annual Passengers

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The reality is that a second airport in Atlanta is unlikely to happen anytime soon. Bastian is obviously going to defend Delta’s largest hub against such a threat, and Smith will want to invest in ATL rather than build a new one. But the more significant facts are that the airport contributes substantially to the Atlanta metro area’s economy, generating an estimated $35 billion in annual economic impact and supporting over 63,000 jobs on-site. Neither the City of Atlanta nor the State of Georgia will want to disrupt that.

Smith, who was appointed the new general manager at ATL earlier this year, has regularly quipped that he wants “people to spend less time at the airport.” He acknowledged that while ATL has been named the most efficient airport in the world by the Air Transport Research Society, “to some customers, the airport certainly doesn’t always feel efficient, right?” He emphasized that the focus of the airport’s initiatives, through the $11.6 billion ATLNext program, is on improving the experience for the ever-growing number of passengers moving through the airport.

And those numbers are truly staggering. The ATLNext plan was originally put together for a total of 125 million annual passengers, which the airport expects to reach by 2030 based on current growth rates. However, if international expansion continues at its current clip — and Delta is certainly showing every sign of doing so — then it could be even sooner. Smith acknowledged that the airport is now taking a longer-term view, saying:

“We now have to look out to the point where we reach 140 million passengers, and we have to figure out what the infrastructure needs to look like to accommodate that level of traffic.”

A Look At The ATLNext Agenda

Delta Air Lines

Travelers through Atlanta will know that various parts of the airport have been massive construction sites for years. The airport has already reaped the rewards of an expanded Terminal T with 10 new gates, huge domestic terminal canopies, a capacity boost for the Plane Train, and a new West parking deck with 5,700 new spaces. However, there is much more on the way with the ATLNext projects currently underway and rolling out over multiple phases, as detailed below.

Looking forward, Bastian said the most critical thing that needs fixing is the nation’s antiquated air traffic control system. Because of air traffic control delays, the scheduled time for a Delta flight from Atlanta to New York is longer now than it was in the 1950s, when Delta started service on the route, according to Bastian. “When you think about all the modern technology that’s been applied on our side, to say that it takes longer to get to LaGuardia than it did in the 1950s is insane,” he said.

Hartsfield-Jackson Atlanta International Airport

America/New_York

IATA CodeATL

CityAtlanta

State/Province/RegionGeorgia

CountryUnited States