jetlanta wrote:

Oh this stupid topic again.

So who is going to pay for it and where are you going to put it? Anybody who understands the aviation and political landscape in Atlanta knows this is going no where. ATL is better located than any possible alternate site. It is also dramatically cheaper to grow than building a 2nd rate, poorly-located reliever airport. Georgia has much better things to do with its resources that fund billions of dollars (and thats what it will cost) to build an white elephant. And if you think Georgia politicians want to get into this fight, you don't understand local politics at all.

Amen. Not to mention it is the most efficient in the US as far as the RNAV SIDS and STARS go on the ATC side which is what the airlines pushed for.
The complexity of the airspace changes drastically with another airport and will decrease efficiency along with an increase in complexity.

ScottB wrote:

It's not well-located for the northern suburbs especially in light of Atlanta's notorious traffic.

For much cheaper, we could just expand MARTA and improve access to ATL. Of course, we all know how that conversation will go.

Well of course DL wouldn’t want a second airport in ATL. They love having a corner on the market for air service. Sure they’re big, but they don’t want any competition. lol

nikeherc wrote:

ATL is a huge patronage scheme for the government in Atlanta. All of the service, food and other contracts for ATL are subject to control by the mayor and city council. The mayor and his pals aren’t going to allow anything to compete with ATL, especially if they control the new airport. It’s not just Delta that likes things the way they are.

BINGO.

The scale of ATL, the size of the airfield alone (what, like 4300 acres or something?), the traffic (predominantly connect pax), and so on is a huge political holy grail for many. It's a ginormous enterprise, well funded, capitalized, and operated. They won't do anything to interfere with that gravy train.

Look at the boondoggle of the canopies that they're installing now....huge massive steelwork that will finally provide a shelter in inclement weather for pax. Yet ticket level and bag claim are still on the same level, enplaning roadway traffic is a nightmare, and, to the point someone else made, the checkpoints are a cluster. Even PreCheck is just a slog often--the automated bin system is not intuitive even for people who fly a lot and then the bin queueing through the system is arbitrarily managed by the TSA person there. Sometimes you can blast through, other times I've had to wait 10 minutes (no joke) once through the mag just to get my carryon. It's a cluster. Then you have the crowded train to boot.

I give ATL a lot of credit for what they do, but it's such a behemoth that you wonder at what point does another second commercial airport seem viable. I don't know. Not taking a side either way, but it makes for interesting discussion.

Similar threads:

"King George III not a fan of American independence"

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The metropolitan Atlanta area is very dense in population, and those that live north of I-285 (Atlanta's perimeter highway) would cry like little babies if you even dared suggest an airport in their backyard... Hartsfield Jackson is an awesome airport. I just flew in from DCA yesterday - landed, deplaned, and got my checked bag, all in 15 minutes from door to the plane to door of my car... Not bad. Not bad at all... Delta built that airport and has competed with every other airline there, from Eastern to AirTran to Southwest, who they'd still be competing with if they hadn't dismantled the hub AirTran so carefully built. The airport still has room to expand and DL will gladly accept the challenge from anyone...

I just don't see a need for a second airport when the current airport is mainly used for connecting passengers. Sure there is originating traffic but by far the majority are people just passing through connecting from one flight to another.

And for local passengers, a second airport would never offer anywhere close to the number of destinations that ATL offers.

CobaltScar wrote:

Ludicrous that the entire state only has Atlanta and Savannah to fly into. And its the biggest state east of the Mississippi landmass wise.

Isn't Florida bigger than Georgia?

MartijnNL wrote:

CobaltScar wrote:

Ludicrous that the entire state only has Atlanta and Savannah to fly into. And its the biggest state east of the Mississippi landmass wise.

Isn't Florida bigger than Georgia?

The poster is correct, Georgia is the largest US State east of the Mississippi River.

PatrickZ80 wrote:

Compare this to Amsterdam. There is only one Amsterdam airport which is operating at the boundaries of it's capacity. It's more than full and can't expand.

You mean at the boundaries of what politicians have agreed on. How can London Heathrow handle more passengers with two runways than Schiphol with six?

PatrickZ80 wrote:

Therefor they're currently expanding Lelystad to become a second airport for Amsterdam. The connecting traffic will however stay where it is, Lelystad will take the LCCs and holiday flights. Those don't contribute to the hub function of Amsterdam and can therefor just as well operate out of Lelystad.

You mean they hope to expand Lelystad. There is quite some opposition against the proposed air routes to and from the airport. And it is already known that lowcost airlines cannot be forced to move to Lelystad.

In the end we are talking about 45,000 flights a year, not so much compared to 520,000 flights Schiphol handles at the moment.

Better move those flights to Groningen or Rotterdam.

Judge1310 wrote:

The poster is correct, Georgia is the largest US State east of the Mississippi River.

Sorry. I read on Wikipedia that Florida is bigger. Better not trust that source?

https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of ... es_by_area

MartijnNL wrote:

Judge1310 wrote:

The poster is correct, Georgia is the largest US State east of the Mississippi River.

Sorry. I read on Wikipedia that Florida is bigger. Better not trust that source?

https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of ... es_by_area

Better to understand what you read. That table for total area includes coastal waters, which for Florida would be a much larger number than for Georgia due to the differences in length of coast line.

Actually Minnesota is bigger than them both. Problem is that Minnesota is east, west and north of the Mississippi..

For states that are entirely east of the river the biggest is square mles are

Georgia -57906
Michigan -56804
Florida is 3 farther back

http://www.theus50.com/fastfacts/area.php

Cubsrule wrote:

What TSA “nightmare?” I can’t remember the last time I waited more than 5 or 10 minutes (precheck, domestic terminal). That’s certainly acceptable for an airport of ATL’s size.

There is no TSA "nightmare". OP is devoid of any such facts. Domestic terminal has several paths into T, from Clear, Skypriority,PreCheck, and everyone else. A lot of resources were put into ATL and there is still room for growth.

Lootess wrote:

Cubsrule wrote:

What TSA “nightmare?” I can’t remember the last time I waited more than 5 or 10 minutes (precheck, domestic terminal). That’s certainly acceptable for an airport of ATL’s size.

There is no TSA "nightmare". OP is devoid of any such facts. Domestic terminal has several paths into T, from Clear, Skypriority,PreCheck, and everyone else. A lot of resources were put into ATL and there is still room for growth.

You mean other than first hand experience.? I'm the OP and I have plenty of first hand experience.

I know some will think this is crazy but there had been some thoughts of adding LIMITED service out of Peachtree Dekalb (PDK).

Just now I found out that my Rand McNally roadmap, bought in the U.S., lists Georgia before Florida! Is that because the surface of all the lakes in Florida is not counted?

Edit: thanks for the replies. It is clear to me now.

MartijnNL wrote:

Just now I found out that my Rand McNally roadmap, bought in the U.S., lists Georgia before Florida! Is that because the surface of all the lakes in Florida is not counted?

Edit: thanks for the replies. It is clear to me now.

Size is a function of size of the footprint. Everything within the footprint counts.

In a way, Atlanta has a second airport. Very few know about. About and hour southeast of Atlanta, there’s a small airport in Macon, Georgie. Contour Airlines flys to BWI nonstop on their Embraer 135s, twice daily. I’ve heard people going to Macon to avoid ATL.

Lootess wrote:

Cubsrule wrote:

What TSA “nightmare?” I can’t remember the last time I waited more than 5 or 10 minutes (precheck, domestic terminal). That’s certainly acceptable for an airport of ATL’s size.

There is no TSA "nightmare". OP is devoid of any such facts. Domestic terminal has several paths into T, from Clear, Skypriority,PreCheck, and everyone else. A lot of resources were put into ATL and there is still room for growth.

This actually isn’t entirely true. I fly very often out of Atlanta. Most of the time I slide right thru with clear and precheck. But every now in them it’s sometimes 30 minutes. Sometimes that’s at busy times like Monday mornings. Other times completely random. I would say on average Atlanta is slower than many of the other major airports I go thru.

MartijnNL wrote:

Just now I found out that my Rand McNally roadmap, bought in the U.S., lists Georgia before Florida! Is that because the surface of all the lakes in Florida is not counted?

Edit: thanks for the replies. It is clear to me now.

This is something like the size of Chile versus Argentina. Both are long, but Argentina is much fatter and thus many times larger. Florida is quite long (in two directions) but also quite skinny, especially in the panhandle. Downtown Tallahassee, for instance, is only about 20 minutes from Georgia.

TWFlyGuy wrote:

I know some will think this is crazy but there had been some thoughts of adding LIMITED service out of Peachtree Dekalb (PDK).

The NIMBY is particularly strong in this one.