United States | Atlanta’s airport

Up in the air

A new billion-dollar terminal aims to boost the world’s busiest airport

|ATLANTA

AFTER you die, goes an air-travel chestnut, whether you go to heaven or hell, you have to change planes in Atlanta. Its airport is the world's busiest, and has been so for 14 years. In 2011 92.4m passengers travelled through Hartsfield-Jackson, nearly 15m more than passed through Beijing, the world's second-busiest airport. Beijing may overtake Atlanta on the world stage this year, but Atlanta's domestic standing is far more secure. In 2011 it led O'Hare airport in Chicago, America's second-busiest, by nearly 26m passengers.

But by one important air-travel measure, Atlanta remains a laggard. Last year it ranked sixth among American airports for international travellers, behind New York (JFK), Miami, Los Angeles, Newark and O'Hare—even though 2011 was a record year for international passengers in Atlanta. Its low rank is not entirely surprising. Miami, whose airport overtook JFK for the top spot this year, has unrivalled connections—culturally and demographically, as well as simply in the number of flights—with Latin America and the Caribbean. Newark, just across the river from Manhattan, and JFK keep the New York area ahead in the charts, where it should be; it is America's financial capital, and its biggest and most vibrant city. Atlanta is certainly big, and the south-east has done a good job of attracting foreign investment; but how far up the charts its airport can climb remains an open question.

Still, the overall forecast for international air travel is strong. The International Air Transport Association, a trade-group representing airlines and travel agents, forecasts that international air travel will grow in North America by 3.8% a year to 2015, compared with 3.1% for domestic travel. And the Federal Aviation Administration forecasts a rise of 30% in international passengers through Atlanta by 2015. Hartsfield-Jackson aims to be ready: a new 12-gate international terminal opened on May 16th, at a cost of $1.4 billion.

Airport officials had been agitating for a separate international terminal for around 16 years. Plans made in 2000 had to be scrapped, partly because of stricter security requirements after the terrorist attacks of September 11th 2001. The terminal's original designers were fired in 2005, pushing the opening date further back; at first it had been set for 2006. Controversy dogged the city's award of $3 billion-worth of concessions. Not until March did a judge quash a lawsuit that would have prevented the airport from signing deals with any other shops or restaurants.

Of course, such kinks are not unusual for a huge municipal construction project. More worrying is that a day after the terminal opened Delta, which operates more than 1,000 flights a day from Atlanta, announced that it was trimming both staff and international service. Airport officials say they are unconcerned; the new terminal, says Al Snedeker, an airport spokesman, “is not built for today or this year”, but for forecast long-term traffic. They had better hope those forecasts hold.

This article appeared in the United States section of the print edition under the headline "Up in the air"

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