THE LARGEST AIRPORT IN THE WORLD

Hartsfield–Jackson Atlanta International Airport

Hartsfield–Jackson Atlanta International Airport (IATA: ATL, ICAO: KATL, FAA LID: ATL), also known as Atlanta Hartsfield–Jackson International Airport, Atlanta Airport, Hartsfield, Hartsfield–Jackson and, formerly, as the Atlanta Municipal Airport, is the primary international airport serving Atlanta, Georgia, United States. The airport is located 7 mi (11 km) south of the Downtown Atlanta district. It is named after former Atlanta mayors William B. Hartsfield and Maynard Jackson. ATL covers 4,700 acres (1,902 ha) of land and has five parallel runways. Hartsfield-Jackson has been the world's busiest airport by passenger traffic since 1998, briefly losing its title in 2020 due to the effect of the COVID-19 pandemic in the United States and regaining it in 2021.

Hartsfield–Jackson is the primary hub of Delta Air Lines. With just over 1,000 flights a day to 225 domestic and international destinations, the Delta hub is the world's largest airline hub and is considered the first mega-hub in America. In addition to hosting Delta's corporate headquarters, Hartsfield–Jackson is also the home of Delta's Technical Operations Center, which is the airline's primary maintenance, repair and overhaul arm. Aside from Delta, Hartsfield-Jackson is also a focus city for low-cost carriers Frontier Airlines and Southwest Airlines. The airport has international service within North America and to Latin America, Europe, Africa, Middle East and East Asia.

The airport is mostly in unincorporated areas of Clayton County, but it spills into the city limits of Atlanta, College Park, and Hapeville, in territory extending into Fulton County. The airport's domestic terminal is served by MARTA's Red and Gold rail lines.

Terminals

Hartsfield–Jackson Atlanta International Airport has two terminals and seven concourses with a total of 195 gates, the largest number of gates for a single airport in the world. The Domestic Terminal is located on the west side of the airport and the Maynard H. Jackson Jr. International Terminal is on the east side of the airport. The terminals and concourses are connected by the Transportation Mall, a pedestrian tunnel with a series of moving walkways and The Plane Train, an automated people mover. 

All international arrivals are processed in Concourses E and F; Concourse F is the only concourse in the airport that has a gate that can support an Airbus A380, the largest passenger aircraft in the world. All non-Delta international carriers operate their ATL flights from this terminal, including Delta’s Skyteam partners such as Aeromexico, Air France, KLM, Korean Air and Virgin Atlantic.

Concourse T contains 17 gates.

Concourse A contains 29 gates.

Concourse B contains 32 gates.

Concourse C contains 34 gates.

Concourse D contains 40 gates.

Concourse E contains 28 gates.

Concourse F contains 12 gates.

Ground transportation

The domestic terminal is accessed directly from Interstate 85 at exit 72. The international terminal is accessed directly from Interstate 75 at exit 239. These freeways in turn connect with the following additional freeways within 10 miles: Interstate 285, Interstate 675, Georgia State Route 166, Interstate 20.

Hartsfield–Jackson has its own train station on the city's rapid transit system, MARTA, served by the Red and Gold lines. The above-ground station is inside in the main building, between the north and south domestic terminals on the west end. The Airport station is currently the southernmost station in the MARTA system, though expansion via metro or commuter rail further south into Clayton County have been discussed.

The Hartsfield–Jackson Rental Car Center, which opened December 8, 2009, houses all ten airport rental agencies with capacity for additional companies. The complex features 9,900 parking spaces split between two four-story parking decks that together cover 2.8 million square feet (260,000 m2), a 137,000-square-foot (12,700 m2) customer service center, and a maintenance center featuring 140 gas pumps and 30 wash bays equipped with a water recovery system. An automated people mover, the ATL SkyTrain, runs between the rental car center, the Domestic Terminal, and the Gateway Center of the Georgia International Convention Center, while a four-lane roadway that spans Interstate 85 connects the rental car center with the existing airport road network.

Other facilities

The 990 Toffie Terrace hangar, a part of Hartsfield–Jackson Airport[55] and located within the City of College Park corporate limits, is owned by the City of Atlanta. The building now houses the Atlanta Police Department Helicopter Unit. It once served as the headquarters of the regional airline ExpressJet.

Before the merger, Atlantic Southeast Airlines was headquartered in the hangar, then named the A-Tech Center. In December 2007, the airline announced it was moving its headquarters into the facility, previously named the "North Hangar." The 203,000-square-foot (18,900 m2) hangar includes 100,000 square feet (9,300 m2) of hangar bays for aircraft maintenance. It has 17 acres (6.9 ha) of adjacent land and 1,400 parking spaces for employees. The airline planned to relocate 100 employees from Macon to the new headquarters. 

The Atlanta City Council and Mayor of Atlanta Shirley Franklin approved the new 25-year ASA lease, which also gave the airline new hangar space to work on 15 to 25 aircraft in overnight maintenance; previously, its aircraft were serviced at Concourse C. 

The airport property division stated that the hangar was built in the 1960s and renovated in the 1970s. Eastern Airlines and Delta Air Lines had previously occupied the hangar. Delta's lease originally was scheduled to expire in 2010, but the airline returned the lease to the City of Atlanta in 2005 as part of its bankruptcy settlement. 

The city collected an insurance settlement of almost $900,000 due to the cancellation.

Accident and Incident

1. On May 23, 1960, Delta Air Lines Flight 1903, a Convair CV-880-22-1 (N8804E), crashed on takeoff resulting in the loss of all four crew members. This flight was a training flight for two Delta captains who were being type-rated on the 880.

2. On February 25, 1969, Eastern Air Lines Flight 955 was hijacked by one passenger shortly after takeoff from ATL en route to Miami. The man pulled a .22 caliber pistol and demanded to be flown to Cuba. He got off the plane in Cuba while the DC-8 was allowed to fly back to the U.S.

3. On April 4, 1977, Southern Airways Flight 242 was on descent to the airport when the hail was ingested into the engines, leading them to fail. Pilot errors and difficult weather forced the pilots to attempt an emergency landing on a highway. Upon touchdown, the aircraft struck several buildings and cars, killing 72 people.

4. On January 18, 1990, an Eastern Airlines Boeing 727 overran a Beechcraft King Air operated by Epps Air Service, based at another Atlanta airport. The King Air had landed and was taxiing when the 727, still at high speed in its landing roll, collided with the aircraft. The larger plane's wing impacted the roof of the smaller. The pilot of the King Air, an Epps charter pilot, was killed, while a passenger survived. No crew or passengers on the Eastern plane were injured.

5. On October 11, 2022, comedian and television host Eric André, along with comedian Clayton English, filed a federal lawsuit against Clayton County, claiming that they were subject to a police program at the airport that, without reasonable suspicion, racially profiled, coerced, and illegally searched passengers boarding planes for drugs. Their lawsuit challenges the constitutionality of the program.