Hartsfield Jackson Airport - musings on inefficiency and reasons for it

Hartsfield Jackson Airport  - musings on inefficiency and reasons for it

 The Atlanta Airport is getting too big for its britches.

The City of Atlanta has taken on a 10 year $5.4 billion dollar plan known as the Hartsfield Development Program (HDP) to enable the airport to meet the forecasted demands of nearly 121 million passengers per year, which will supposedly occur by the year 2015. These people know no bounds. The proposed plan has many items on its agenda for expansion, but by far the most challenging portion of this plan includes a 9,000 feet fifth runway (runway 10-28) with accommodating taxiway positioned on the airport to facilitate more arrival and departure traffic.  Although this new construction will decrease delays and allow for an increase in traffic, it is no small undertaking.  In fact, determining the best position for placement of this new runway has created challenges of its own because the existing 3,750-acre, landlocked airport is surrounded by interstate highways on three sides. 
Did you get that? SURROUNDED by interstates on THREE sides. O Sancta Simplicitas! When will these fools ever learn?

Merely building a new runway will not decrease the saturated airways or increase the ability to accept more traffic without proper management and facilities to support an expansion.  So the question remains, will this new runway with all of its technological advances and record breaking feats really decrease delays and allow for increased arrivals into the Atlanta airport?  Atlanta's Department of Aviation thinks it will.  I disagree.  Although these expansions are in place to meet the predicted forecast of 121 million passengers by the year 2015 Atlanta's aviation advisors are already working on even further expansions.  In an alternate expanded plan, designers had originally envisioned even a sixth runway, but due to the fact that it wasn't economically viable to the surrounding community, that plan has been dismissed. Did you get that? They finally had a moment of sanity – the “sixth” runway would not be economically feasible for the surrounding community. A fifth would -  but     a sixth would not. A brief moment of sanity.

Enough of the mis-guided attempts of Atlanta city planners, let’s focus on the real world effects of equally idiotic airline companies that continually delay ticket holders through a sadistic scheme of false hope and knowingly inaccurate promises.

Delta has decided that it is better to just shut down, than to possibly delay travelers on the Tarmac. Their latest justification is a legal action brought against Continental Express for keeping passengers on the Tarmac for six hours. One of the numerous complaints listed on www.my3cents.com is:

    “Bottom line; consider avoiding Delta Airlines in case you expect to go on a trip that requires advanced planning on YOUR part. You cannot count on Delta to meet whatever commitments they make when you book flights with them. This airline is in complete disarray!”

This website lists so many complaints against this airline that I could not click through all of them.  They include lost laptops, bogus weather reports (when all other airlines are flying out), and my personal favorite – shutting down. After they shut down, they offer “airport kits” over the intercom. These “kits” are designed for you to use while sleeping in the airport. Their shutdown is complete, they cannot be reached by phone for up to two days. In response to delays that occurred in Nov. 2009, a US Senator got involved -

Sen. Charles E. Schumer (D-N.Y.) issued a statement in response to the delays, saying the country's aviation system was "in shambles" and that the FAA needed more resources to prevent such problems and modernize its equipment.

"If we don't deliver the resources, manpower and technology, these technical glitches that cause cascading delays and chaos across the country are going to become a very regular occurrence," he said.

Chaos across the country… cascading delays… a “regular occurrence”.

Overly aggressive construction and development coupled with a complete lack of human concern on the part of the airline industry has turned the Atlanta airport into a denizen of despair. Just walking through that airport makes one wonder at the carrying capacity of the physical space. There will be a tipping point for this reckless abandon. It cannot continue on its present course. The worse thing about it is that the airlines (Delta in particular) have expressed absolutely no sense of empathy for any of their paying passengers. How about a PR campaign to let people know they are working to correct the mistakes of the past? They could create suggestion programs, flight guarantees and rebates, (even if done on a percentage basis). Any legitimate business would. Something– anything to help their customers. But no – they are a monolithic behemoth, a nightmare of gargantuan proportions that doesn’t give a rats ass whether you live or die in the wake of their manufactured misery. My theory is that these alleged “airlines” are actually government study groups to observe and record the breaking points of people’s sanity. Passengers are essentially lab rats in this macabre experiment. Think about it – the cameras, the personnel, the security -the fish bowl nature of an airport. What a great way to observe the unraveling of the human mind! And the worst thing about it is that you are paying to be an observed monkey on behalf of Delta Airlines to push you to the outer edge of despair.

Maybe we, (the people), should begin wearing drool cups on every flight through Atlanta. Let it make the news. Let’s be photographed drooling like Pavlov dogs as we stumble through this lexicon of madness. Derail the experiment! Let them know that we are on to them! Only then, with massive media attention, can we truly effect change and turn back this earthquake of ill repute, this temerity, this unmitigated gall of our worst fear – flying through Hartsfield Jackson airport.


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