Hartsfield-Jackson International Airport celebrates its centennial in 2025
2025 is a big year for airplanes in Atlanta: not only is it the year Delta Air Lines marks its centennial, its also the centennial year for Hartsfield-Jackson International Airport.
Then-mayor of Atlanta Walter Sims signed a five-year lease to create the airport out of an abandoned racetrack on April 16, 1925. In the 100 years since then the airport has become a defining part of Atlanta’s identity, as well as the busiest airport in the world.
At midnight on New Year’s Eve, the airport’s lighted canopy began displaying “ATL 100,″ which will remain up for most of 2025.
But the airport intends to stretch its birthday celebrations for more than a year until September 2026 — since Sept. 15, 1926, was the date of the first commercial flight into what was then Candler Field. (The airport is now named for two former Atlanta mayors who had a major influence on its growth in the decades since: William Hartsfield and Maynard Jackson.)
It’s a poetic coincidence that 2025 is also the centennial year for Delta, the airline most closely associated with ATL and the state’s largest private employer.
Atlanta is Delta’s biggest hub. The airline is responsible for roughly 80% of the passenger volume at the airport and a major determinant of its “world’s busiest” title.
What is now Delta was incorporated as Huff-Daland Dusters in Macon in 1925 as a crop-duster to control insects in the agriculture industry. After moving to Louisiana, the airline first carried passengers in 1929 and ultimately switched its headquarters to Atlanta in 1941.
Hartsfield-Jackson and Delta are planning a range of celebratory events in the months ahead, including two centennial galas.
The airline will kick off its 100th year with a high-profile keynote address at a tech conference in Las Vegas next week to showcase its intentions to become one of the world’s most prominent consumer brands.
The airport, meanwhile, plans to launch its birthday celebration with an upcoming news conference featuring Atlanta Mayor Andre Dickens alongside all living former Atlanta mayors and former airport general managers.
About the Author
As a business reporter, Emma Hurt leads coverage of the Atlanta airport, Delta Air Lines, UPS, Norfolk Southern and other travel and logistics companies. Prior to the Atlanta Journal-Constitution she worked as an editor and Atlanta reporter for Axios, a politics reporter for WABE News and a business reporter for the Arkansas Democrat-Gazette.
