Busiest Airport in U.S.

January 17, 2008 by slcooper
Filed under Travel Tips

I’ll give you a couple of clues. It’s not where you’d expect. It’s in the southeastern part of the United States. It’s home many famous people including singer Little Richard, author Margaret Mitchell (Gone with the Wind), baseball great Ty Cobb and famed civil rights leader Martin Luther King, Jr.

That last clue should tell you I’m referring to Atlanta’s Hartsfield-Jackson International airport, where close to one million flights landed and took off in 2007, earning it, for the third year in a row, the title of America’s busiest airport.

Although my blog focus mainly on cruises, today I’m sharing my recent visit to Atlanta for a computer conference. I stayed very close to the airport, just a shuttle ride away and became pretty familiar with it’s offerings.

One of its greatest features is the subway, called MARTA, (Metropolitan Atlanta Rapid Transit Authority) which stops (or starts, depending on your direction) from the airport. For $1.25 I was able to ride from one of the city’s suburban malls, about a half hour away, all the way to the airport. As a price comparison, earlier in the day I’d taken a taxi to downtown Atlanta from my hotel, a much shorter distance, for about $25. The subway is an easy to ride, it’s easy to understand the subway routes and best of all, there were actually attendants helping customers buy tickets and answer questions…on Sunday afternoon! That put my mind at ease. It can be a bit daunting when you’re in a new city figuring out distances.

Believe it or not, I learned that Brookstone has seven satellite stores at Atlanta’s airport. Seven. They sell the usual Brookstone fare from cuddle blankets to electronics. Next to one of the shops I checked out a row of vending machines that offered a huge selection of electronic devices, from ipods to adapters to cameras. They were stratically placed next to several cubicles which provided hookups for your laptops, comfortable chairs, roomy desks, outlets, etc. And here too an attendant ready to answer your questions.

There are quite a few food choices and plenty of bars at the airport. Responsible for two-thirds of the flights, Delta Airlines dominates the sprawling airport space since the location serves as the airlines’ hub. If you’re looking for ground transportation, ask someone to point you in the right direction as there is some construction underway outside near that area.

Being from Southern California, folks seem to move a bit slower in Atlanta. Or maybe we just move too fast here. I found the people to be helpful, polite, knowledgeable. The weather was typically east coast fall, beautiful colors, wooded acreage as far as the eye could see, cool, crispy air. Thanks to a subway that spent time above ground as well as below, I discovered the city and its surrounding areas to be diverse. Some sections are very old and in desperate need of care. Other areas are the complete opposite, filled with glass skyscrapers and sprawling mcmansions.

If you have to change planes, the weather in Atlanta can be a big plus. It’s nice to avoid the all-too-common delays often blamed on Dallas’ thunderstorms, Denver’s snowstorms and Chicago’s blizzards.