"Hartsfield poised for summer rush"

Sunday, June 10, 2007

Summer travel means airport's getting busier
By JIM THARPE
The Atlanta (GA) Journal-Constitution

 
The world's busiest airport is about to get a lot busier.

Officials at Atlanta's Hartsfield-Jackson International Airport estimate
that about 370,000 passengers per day will pass through the facility in the
next week or so as the summer travel season kicks into high gear. About
250,000 passengers a day use Hartsfield-Jackson on an average day.

"There are a lot of people and a lot more volume, so it's very important
that people give themselves some extra time to avoid problems," said airport
spokesman Herschel Grangent.

Nationally, about 209 million people are expected to take to the skies
between June 1 and Aug. 31, said David Castelveter, president of the Air
Transport Association, the major airlines' trade group.

"That's a record," Castelveter said. "We're looking at fuller planes and
more planes in the sky."

That translates to more people crowding airports like Hartsfield-Jackson and
more hassles if they don't do some serious planning ahead of time.

Grangent said anyone flying out of Hartsfield-Jackson should check the
airport's Web site (atlanta-airport.com) for information on parking
availability and security checkpoint times before they leave home. He also
suggested they visit the Transportation Security Administration web site
(tsa.gov) for a list of prohibited items.

Officials are also urging leisure travelers to book travel - if possible -
for "non-peak" times. Crowds at large airports vary widely depending on the
day and hour of travel.

Hartsfield-Jackson usually experiences its biggest crowds in the morning,
from 7 to 9 a.m., Grangent said. The busiest afternoon times are between 4
and 7 p.m.

"It's a good idea to try and book your travel during the mid-morning through
the early afternoon and the evening," Grangent said. "Monday through
Thursday are usually the lightest travel days.

Wait times at the security checkpoints can vary widely depending on the
hour.

On Friday - the week's busiest travel day as business' road warriors return
and vacationers depart - security wait times were 20 minutes at 8:40 a.m.,
but had dropped to 9 minutes just an hour later, Grangent said. But by 1:30
p.m., they had soared to 40 minutes.

The airport and TSA try to keep wait times to an average of 15 minutes or
less.

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