Athens airport nears capacity before UGA-Texas game, flights to be rerouted
Georgia football’s game against Texas this weekend already set records well before kickoff.
The Athens-Ben Epps Airport will handle the most incoming and outgoing weekend flights in its 100-plus-year history, airport director Mike Mathews said Saturday morning.
The No. 5 Bulldogs host the No. 10 Texas Longhorns in Sanford Stadium at 7:30 p.m. Saturday, the first time the Longhorns have traveled to Athens to play on the University of Georgia’s home turf.
“Texas fans fly larger aircraft,” Mathews said, “and of course these aircraft take up more space.”
Mathews said Friday was the busiest football-weekend Friday the airport has ever recorded. Planes were repositioned to maximize parking space ahead of Saturday’s rush.
Before noon on game day, the airport was already near capacity, and Mathews said ground stops were likely, with all inbound traffic eventually halted.
In similar past situations, planes have been diverted to Winder and Lawrenceville when Athens ran out of parking space. Hartsfield-Jackson Atlanta International Airport is about 80 miles southwest of Athens.
The Athens-Clarke County-operated airport, on 425 acres 3 miles north of downtown, typically handles about 60 flights a day with six to eight people working. The facility has undergone $28 million in upgrades in recent years.
On home-game weekends, flight traffic swells to around 160 and staff increases to 22.
The previous record for flights occurred in 2019, when Georgia hosted Notre Dame.
Mathews said that on most game days, two charter flights carrying the team, band, cheerleaders and alumni land. This weekend, as many as seven charters are expected.
“This really tests our ability to make it all work,” Mathews said.
With UGA winning two national championships and only registering six losses since 2021, Athens’ roughly 2,600 hotel rooms also now fill quickly on game weekends, with prices often surging.
About the Author
Fletcher Page is Athens bureau chief covering northeast Georgia for The Atlanta Journal-Constitution.
