ATLNEXT

The world’s busiest and most efficient airport in September set in motion a 20-year, $6 billion capital improvement program that will change the face of Hartsfield-Jackson.

The program, called ATLNext, came about as a result of a year-long master plan study that identified Hartsfield-Jackson’s needs through 2030. It looked at growth in the region and at the Airport, gauged existing facilities’ ability to meet those needs, and identified development solutions.

Under ATLNext, Hartsfield-Jackson will modernize its facilities; build a Concourse G and grow Concourse T; expand cargo operations; replace two parking decks; construct a sixth runway; and pave the way for a four-star hotel with 80,000 square feet of meeting space just steps from the Domestic Terminal.

One of the signature projects will be the construction of two massive canopies covering the north and south entrances of the Domestic Terminal. The canopies, which will total the length of three football fields, will provide a dramatic entrance to the Airport while protecting guests from rain, wind and snow. The canopy project is scheduled to be completed as early as 2019, and the additional runway and concourse are expected to be operational by 2035.

ATLNext will employ thousands of workers and ultimately position the Airport for future growth and enhanced customer service.

WALL OF HONOR

Each day on ATL’s public address system, Mayor Kasim Reed welcomes our valiant military men and women to Atlanta and thanks them for their dedicated service to our nation.

In 2016, the City of Atlanta and Hartsfield-Jackson took that appreciation to a whole new level.

Mayor Reed – along with Airport leaders and a host of dignitaries and decorated war veterans – on June 29 officially unveiled the U.S. Military Service Wall of Honor, a permanent tribute to the armed services.

Measuring some 25 feet by 11 feet, the Wall of Honor features a display of artifacts universal to the military experience. Among the items, encased in bronze and glass, are an American flag from 1889, an Army bugle from 1925 and a flight jacket from 1944. The display also includes digital monitors with a slide show of images of service men and women from all age ranges and racial backgrounds.

Mayor Reed said the military tribute, unveiled just days before the Fourth of July, is “a timely, well-deserved recognition of all the veterans who have bravely served and sacrificed for the United States of America, from its founding to present.”

The Wall of Honor, set near the Domestic Terminal atrium, marked the culmination of a yearlong project coordinated between the Department of Aviation and stakeholders from various military organizations.

Organizations represented in the stakeholders group include the Atlanta Vietnam Veterans Business Association, Korean War Veterans Association, Military Order of the Purple Heart, Montford Point Marine Association, Tuskegee Airmen, United Service Organizations Inc. and the Veterans of Foreign Wars.

THE CUSTOMER EXPERIENCE

Enhancing the customer experience is a hallmark of Airport operations. For ATL, 2016 was a banner year. Hartsfield-Jackson not only focused on ensuring exceptional guest services from curbside to gate, but the team also elevated the customer experience with new amenities and services.

• ADA Office: Hartsfield-Jackson set about “making ordinary service extraordinarily accessible.” The Airport reaffirmed its commitment to the needs of its guests with disabilities, from adding more handicapped parking spaces to incorporating visual paging systems. In addition, ATL’s canine guests got a little more relief this year with the opening of indoor Service Animal Relief Areas (SARAs) on Concourses T, A, B and C.
• Entertainment Program: ATL began the year on a high note, establishing a top-notch music program for guests’ enjoyment. The Airport hired 13 of Atlanta’s finest entertainers to play a variety of instruments and genres from 7 a.m. to 7 p.m. each weekday.
• Art Program: ATL installed “Flight Paths,” a 450-foot multisensory walk through a simulated forest between Concourses A and B. Although breathtaking, the artwork’s lights and sounds are also metaphors for the journey travelers take through ATL – and beyond.
• atl.com, refreshed: Hartsfield-Jackson launched a redesigned website that features better navigation, more modern typography and a cohesive color palette, and it serves as a vehicle to communicate new initiatives and critical information to ATL’s guests.

AEROTROPOLIS ATLANTA

In addition to the exciting initiatives at the Airport, ATL is enthusiastic about work being done near the Airport.

Thanks to the work of community and business stakeholders throughout the region, a new vision of metro Atlanta’s southside is emerging. That vision is called Aerotropolis Atlanta.

The Aerotropolis Atlanta blueprint, a first-of-its-kind strategy for the region, rolled out in 2016, with the goal of transforming and revitalizing the areas surrounding the Airport into a world-class business and residential community. This community will place a premium on safety, beautification, workforce development, green infrastructure initiatives and tourism.

The blueprint study area extends outward from its core (the Airport and adjacent cities of Atlanta, College Park, East Point and Hapeville) in a tentacle-like fashion along key transportation and economic development corridors.

The area is already home to Delta Air Lines, Porsche Cars North America, Chick-fil-A, Georgia’s second largest convention center, nine Opportunity Zones, five MARTA Stations, three Community Improvement Districts, three film studios, three national historic districts, the largest independent school in the continental U.S., three institutions of higher learning, and, of course, the world’s busiest airport.

The Airport’s continued success – as well as its growth and expansion – will play a lead role in shaping Aerotropolis Atlanta. Among the projects influencing the direction of Aerotropolis is ATLNext, the Airport’s 20-year, $6 billion capital improvement program.

LEASE AGREEMENT

The City of Atlanta entered into a new lease agreement between Hartsfield-Jackson and Delta Air Lines, bolstering the Airport’s position as the economic jewel of Georgia.

The deal, which marks the culmination of more than a year of negotiations with Delta, keeps the airline’s corporate headquarters in Atlanta through 2036. At the same time, the agreement launched ATLNext, the Airport’s $6 billion capital improvement program.

The agreement started July 1. The previous lease agreement was signed in 2009 and was set to expire in 2017.

Under terms of the agreement, Hartsfield-Jackson also achieves the following:

• Maintains its status as one of the most cost-competitive airports in the country, with among the lowest Cost Per Enplaned (CPE) passenger.

• Provides for three common-use gates or permits the Department of Aviation to construct gates, allowing the Airport to accommodate both new and existing airlines.

• Strengthens gate utilization provisions that permit the Department of Aviation to recapture gates that are not being adequately used by airlines.

Delta has called Atlanta home for more than 70 years. This lease agreement not only provides Delta with a world-class base of operations, but it also paves the way for other airline tenants to grow at ATL.

SUSTAINABILITY

Hartsfield-Jackson is a massive enterprise, and it’s constantly growing and evolving. Despite that growth, ATL is laser-focused on sustainability, balancing the Airport’s constantly expanding operations with an unwavering commitment to preserving the environment.

Now Hartsfield-Jackson is on a mission to become one of the world’s greenest airports, a milestone goal set by Mayor Kasim Reed. In 2016, ATL launched or continued momentum on a series of initiatives to advance that objective.

• Green Acres: Proposals have been received, evaluated and scored on a key project to move the needle to 90 percent landfill diversion. The recycling and composting facility would be the first of its kind on Airport grounds.
• ATLNext: As the capital improvement program forges ahead, ATL is putting special focus on life cycle cost analysis, true cost of ownership and impact to the environment. Key sustainable projects identified include a second end-around taxiway to reduce aircraft delays, energy-efficient parking garages and LEED-certified facilities.
• EcoDistrict:  The nation’s first airport EcoDistrict continues to do yeoman’s work in the areas of energy usage; air quality and carbon emissions; access and mobility; and materials management.
• Environmental Events: ATL hosted the second annual GreeningATL Excellence Awards event and International Sustainable Asset Management (ISAM) Conference, underscoring ATL’s environmental stewardship.

SMART LANES

In an effort to enhance security effectiveness while minimizing wait times, Hartsfield-Jackson Atlanta International Airport became the first airport in the nation to install Automated Screening Lanes, or Smart Lanes, at security checkpoints.

The technology includes automated bin return, automated baggage rollers, and automated separation of cleared and suspected bags. The new setup is similar to the system used at London’s Heathrow Airport.

The technology was first introduced in the spring, when the Department of Aviation – with a $1 million investment by Delta Air Lines – set up two Smart Lanes at the South Security checkpoint for testing.

Those checkpoints have increased passenger processing through security by 25 percent to 30 percent. Based on that success, ATL set about installing 20 more Smart Lanes at its other Domestic checkpoints, with a completion date set for May 2017.

Hartsfield-Jackson staggered construction to limit guest impact, and it suspended work during holiday travel periods to minimize checkpoint congestion.

In total, 22 of the 27 lanes in the Domestic Terminal will be Smart Lanes.

Based on ATL’s success, other airports and airlines around the country are following suit.

AIRPORT COMMUNITY ENGAGEMENT

The Airport gives back to the communities it serves, hosting significant events and rallying around important causes.

• Airport Community Blood Drive: More than 100 donors from across the Hartsfield-Jackson community rolled up their sleeves and gave some 80 pints of life-saving blood. That’s enough blood to save up to 240 lives.
• Airport Community Job Fair: In 2016, the Airport hosted its first fall job fair. Unlike its spring counterpart, the fall fair included a wider variety of positions, including project manager and engineering jobs for ATLNext initiatives.
• Breast Cancer Awareness Month: ATL’s first Survivor Celebration provided free breast cancer screenings on-site to uninsured employees and brought awareness to the entire Airport community.
• Mayor’s 5K on the 5th Runway: The second annual race in August drew 1,985 participants and raised $185,340 for the United Way. That eclipsed last year’s haul of $128,000 and surpassed the goal of $150,000.
• Wings for Autism: ATL’s inaugural event in April introduced – and acclimated – dozens of autistic individuals to the everyday routines at ATL. The effort was designed to build awareness and broaden training opportunities, not just for individuals with autism, but for Airport, airline and TSA personnel as well.
• Taste of Hartsfield-Jackson: The second annual event showcased the diversity of ATL’s dining options while raising money for Silence The Growl, the United Way of Greater Atlanta’s program to combat childhood hunger.

MEDIA HIGHLIGHTS

Hartsfield-Jackson is the world’s busiest and most efficient airport, the region’s dominant economic engine and the state’s largest employer. Naturally, it’s the focus of extensive media coverage.

From daily inclusion in local television weathercasts to a prominent role in an internationally distributed documentary focusing on worldwide airport efficiency, Hartsfield-Jackson has shined in the media spotlight.

Late in 2015, BBC production crews visited ATL to document the Airport’s efforts to maintain efficiency during the busiest travel period of the year. “City in the Sky” – a multipart documentary released in spring 2016 by the BBC, PBS and their worldwide partners – showcased the best of ATL to millions of viewers.

Hartsfield-Jackson’s various awards and commendations also received positive media. ATL’s designation as the world’s busiest airport for the 19th consecutive year was the focus of local, national and international news coverage. The announcement – and subsequent news coverage – in August that ATL recorded its lowest passenger screening wait times in seven years proved that ATL wasn’t just busy, but especially efficient.

Finally, consistent with City and state efforts to increase film production opportunities throughout the region, Hartsfield-Jackson has created On-Location ATL, a program dedicated to guiding filmmakers through the process of filming or photographing at Hartsfield-Jackson.