Hartsfield-Jackson marks successful first year of international terminal

The 1.2 million-square-foot terminal and concourse offer world-class amenities, diverse concessions and separate levels for arriving and departing travelers

ATLANTA, 2013-05-17 — /travelprnews.com/ — Hartsfield-Jackson Atlanta International Airport officials today mark a successful first year of operations at the Maynard H. Jackson Jr. International Terminal which opened on May 16, 2012.

The $1.4 billion, award-winning facility connects with Concourse E and provides passengers with a 40-gate international travel complex. U.S. Customs and Border Protection processing areas are located on Concourse E and the international terminal.

The most popular feature of the new terminal remains the elimination of the baggage re-check process for in-bound international travelers whose final destination is Atlanta.

“As we mark the one year anniversary of Atlanta’s newest global gateway, I am proud of the world-class amenities, operational efficiencies and increased capacity at the Maynard H. Jackson Jr. International Terminal,” said Atlanta Mayor Kasim Reed. “This terminal stands as a testament to our continued effort to make Atlanta a leading global city.”

In 2012, Hartsfield-Jackson welcomed more than 9.85 million international passengers and managed 68,209 international flight operations (takeoffs and landings). The Transportation Security Administration has kept pace, screening more than 4 million travelers at the international terminal’s checkpoints from May 2012 through March 2013.

“The international terminal opened an untapped opportunity for growth,” said Louis Miller, aviation general manager at Hartsfield-Jackson. “We average 2,500 flights a day in Atlanta, so the increased gate capacity has given us the ability to spread our operations over seven concourses and handle more flights as the airlines offer new service or expand their existing routes.”

A total of 28 retail outlets, restaurants and other business services have opened in the facility and generated an estimated $50.6 million in sales from May 2012 through April 2013. More than 1,000 jobs — most of them in retail and food and beverage — have been created to operate and maintain the terminal and concourse.

Looking ahead, the Airport will open its first ever common-use lounge in June. This high-tech lounge environment will offer first-class amenities to business and leisure travelers without an affiliation with any particular airline.

Sleep and spa accommodations will be added in 2014. Keeping families in mind, Hartsfield-Jackson has announced plans to add a children’s play area and nursing rooms to the terminal complex.

To learn more about Hartsfield-Jackson’s Maynard H. Jackson Jr. International Terminal, visit the Airport’s website at www.atlanta-airport.com/internationalterminal/ .

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Hartsfield-Jackson Atlanta International Airport
Hartsfield-Jackson is the world’s busiest airport, serving more than 95 million passengers annually with nonstop service to 160 U.S. destinations and nearly 70 international destinations in more than 45 countries. The Airport is a frequent recipient of awards of excellence for concessions, operations, architectural engineering and construction – including the 2011 Global and North American Airport Efficiency Excellence Award from the Air Transport Research Society (for more information, go to www.atrsworld.org). It is undergoing $6 billion-plus in capital improvements, which include a new, energy-efficient rental car center; a new, 12-gate international terminal (for more information, go to www.atlanta-airport.com/internationalterminal/;and aesthetic and functional upgrades to its concourses, people movers and parking services. For more information, go to www.atlanta-airport.com. Check out the Airport’s YouTube channel by visiting http://www.youtube.com/AtlantaHartsfield, and become a fan on Facebook.

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