"Atlanta spells relief r-u-n-w-a-y"

Friday, May 19, 2006

Atlanta spells relief r-u-n-w-a-y
The Associated Press


ATLANTA - As a business traveler who flies 100,000 miles a year on Delta Air
Lines, Jay Spencer is used to flying through the world's busiest hub at
Hartsfield-Jackson Atlanta International Airport.

As a result, he's very familiar with the airport's infamous delays -
anything, he says, from 15 minutes to three hours.

''They say you don't go to heaven or hell without flying through Atlanta,''
said the 45-year-old real estate investor from Salt Lake City.

Thanks to a new 9,000-foot runway to open May 27, the airport's officials
are pledging to cut those delays in half, which also could mean fewer and
shorter delays throughout the entire air transportation network in the
United States and possibly around the world.

That's because no other airport in the world handles more passengers. Nearly
86 million people pass through the Atlanta airport each year on more than
980,000 flights - one taking off or landing about every 30 seconds. They fly
direct to 157 cities in the U.S. and 65 others in 43 different countries.

''You take an airplane delay at Hartsfield - 20 minutes - now it's delayed
at O'Hare International Airport in Chicago,'' said Terry Trippler, an
airline industry expert for Cheapseats.com. ''If an airline cancels a
flight, there's no place to put the people - you can't move them to another
flight because those flights are filled.''

The runway is part of a major overhaul at the airport that also includes the
tallest air traffic control tower in North America, standing at 398 feet,
and an ''end-around'' taxiway - the first of its kind in the country - that
will help keep arriving flights from being delayed by having to wait to
cross busy runways before reaching their gates.

The airport's new fifth runway and a new runway monitor system will help it
bring in three different streams of planes at the same time, even during
foul weather. The reduced delays should reduce operating costs for airlines
by an estimated total of $5 million a week, said Ben DeCosta, the airport's
general manager.

''If you're flying in Atlanta, your plane won't be asked to delay,'' DeCosta
said. ''You'll be brought in because we'll have room for you.''

The airline set to benefit the most is Delta Air Lines, which uses airport
as its primary hub and is looking any savings it can get as it works to pull
out of bankruptcy. Delta and its subsidiaries account for nearly three out
of every four flights at Hartsfield-Jackson.

Air traffic has gotten so congested at the Atlanta airport that a quarter of
all scheduled flights are delayed - ranking fourth worst among the nation's
major airports, according to federal Bureau of Transportation statistics.
And the average delay in Atlanta runs 17 minutes, said airport spokeswoman
Felicia Browder.

While the statistics show that most of the delays are blamed on bad weather,
the smallest storms can cause major delays when there's limited runway
space, Browder said.

With the goal of curbing delays, the airport spent five years and $1.284
billion to build its new runway, the most expensive ever built in the United
States. The runway's costs are mainly paid for through airport passenger
fees included in the ticket price of every flight that travels through the
airport along with $179 million from the federal government.

Delays create enormous pressure on airlines, which have been recently flying
at record loads of 90 percent or more while trying to turn profits.

''This runway could not be opening at a better time,'' Trippler said. ''Now
it is more critical than ever to keep those airplanes on time.''

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