When you landed in Atlanta you were landing at the busiest airport in the world. It’s held that ranking since 1998 according to its website and currently averages 275,000 passengers each day. It sees nearly 2,500 arrivals and departures daily.
Another bit of notoriety is that Atlanta was ranked as the best transit to the airport in the nation, according to a study by MileCards.com earlier this year. The ranking was based on price, speed, convenience and frequency.
The transit-airport connection ranked sixth best globally, behind Tokyo, Delhi, Shanghai’s two airport’s and Amsterdam’s Schiphol Airport.
MARTA GM/CEO Keith Parker said, “We won by a landslide in the country because you can go from Delta or Southwest baggage claim, on either end of the spectrum, in less than three minutes. Sixteen minutes later, you’re downtown. For $2.50.”
They compared how long the trip to downtown takes at noon, a non-rush hour period, and MARTA still came out on top. From the airport to the downtown Five Points Station, it takes 17 minutes for the train and 23 minutes for driving.
MARTA runs trains from the airport every 6 minutes and has a 97.5 percent on-time performance.
The airport station is one of MARTA’s busiest stations and they’re about to make a massive investment in it. The rehab will make it look more like the airport; it will feel seamless walking from the airport through the station. Parker said, “We’re really going to push the beautification of the station to make it more functional.”
The biggest users of the station are the airport employees, many of which are transit dependent.
The Plane Train
When you travelled between the concourses and main terminal of ATL, you rode the Plane Train, the airport’s underground automated people mover. It consists of 11 four-car trains operating on a 3-mile loop track, operating approximately every two minutes.
The APM has been in service since 1980 and was designed by Bombardier Transportation. Bombardier supplied the initial fleet of 17 vehicles and then in 2002 replaced the vehicles with the Innovia APM 100 vehicles. The current fleet of 49 vehicles serve 15 stations.
More than 95 million passengers a year use the service that has an on-time performance record of more than 99.5 percent.
To shorten the wait times and add capacity, the tunnel will be extended about 600 feet, allowing trains to turn back to go in the other direction.
The $307 million project is expected to shave 13 seconds off the time between trains, bringing it to 95 seconds when the project is complete.
With the addition of the area for turning the trains around, it will allow 11 more cards to be added to increase overall capacity.
The tunnel extension project is part of a $6 billion expansion plan, ATLNext, the airport’s capital improvement program, and is expected to start construction in 2018 and completed in 2019.
SkyTrain
Connecting customers to the Rental Car Center is the APM, SkyTrain. In five minutes, passengers are connected to the Rental Car Center, Georgia International Convention Center, hotels and office buildings. The train operates six two-car trains, which can carry 100 passengers and their baggage.
The 1.5-mile SkyTrain opened in 2009 and utilizes Mitsubishi Crystal Mover vehicles. Twelve cars run as six, two-car trains.
The SkyTrain runs 24 hours a day and arrives every three minutes during peak hours and about every 10 minutes at night.
ATL Fun Facts
Hartsfield-Jackson Atlanta International Airport (ATL)
Ownership/Operator: The City of Atlanta / Department of Aviation
Elevation above Sea Level: 1,026 feet (313 meters)
Distance from Downtown Atlanta: 10 miles
Total Airport Area: 4,700 acres
Terminal Complex: The terminal complex measures 6.8 million square feet. The complex includes the domestic and international terminals building and concourses T, A, B, C, D, E and F. Within these concourses, there are a total of 207 gates comprised of 167 domestic and 40 international gates.
The Ground Transportation Center is located at the west end of the domestic terminal building and offers the following services:
- Shuttle bus services
- Taxi, limo and sedan services
- 13 rental car agencies
- Metropolitan Atlanta Rapid Transit Authority (MARTA) train service
Concessions: There are 263 concession outlets throughout the Airport: 114 food and beverage locations, 90 retail and convenience outlets, three duty-free stores and 56 service outlets, including a banking center, Georgia Lottery outlets, ATMs, vending machines and spas.
Employment: Hartsfield-Jackson is the state’s largest employer, with more than 63,000 airline, ground transportation, concessionaire, security, federal government, city of Atlanta and airport tenant employees.
Economic Impact: ATL generates $34.8 billion economic impact for metro Atlanta.
Other Facts:
- Since 1998, Hartsfield-Jackson has been the busiest airport in the world.
- Hartsfield-Jackson serves 150 U.S. destinations and more than 75 international destinations in 50 countries.
- Hartsfield-Jackson has the tallest air traffic control tower in North America (398 feet) and is the fourth tallest in the world.
- Hartsfield-Jackson averages 275,000 passengers a day.
- On average, there are almost 2,500 arrivals and departures daily.
- Atlanta is within a two-hour flight of 80 percent of the United States population.
