How critical is Hartsfield-Jackson to Atlanta’s economy?
“Without it, we’d be Birmingham. We’d be Charlotte. We’d be Nashville,” Metro Atlanta Chamber President Sam Williams said.
But don’t just take the word of the man whose job it is to sell Atlanta. Ask a globe-trotting businessman.
“Hartsfield-Jackson serves as our conduit to the world,” said Kirk Kinsell, president of the Americas division of the InterContinental Hotels Group, headquartered in Dunwoody. “It makes it very easy to conduct international business from Atlanta.”
The airport’s impact -- economic and psychological -- on Atlanta likely will rise with Wednesday’s opening of the Maynard H. Jackson International Terminal.
A new building, by itself, won’t translate into millions of dollars in revenue, although as many as 1,000 new jobs are expected. And the airlines, Delta in particular, aren’t rolling out new international routes to expand Atlanta’s global reach.
But the new terminal packs a public-relations punch that further burnishes Atlanta’s international reputation. Image and accessibility -- Hartsfield-Jackson offers direct service to 150 domestic cities and 75 international ones -- attract corporate headquarters and traveling salesmen.
Virtually every corporate newcomer, including NCR, Novelis, Wipro and Baxter, said the airport was a primary or secondary reason for locating in Atlanta.
Aniket Maindarkar, associate vice president for Infosys BPO, scoured the United States for an Americas-wide operations center for the Indian outsourcing firm. Phoenix, Detroit and Tampa were “far more cost-effective,” Maindarkar said. But Atlanta’s airport, and its college-educated talent pool, won the day.
“A good airport is absolutely critical for me,” said Maindarkar, who flies on average twice weekly. Hartsfield-Jackson “has great connectivity. Clients can fly in and out from anywhere in the world.”
The chamber’s Williams credits hopscotching Delta, which accounts for three-fourths of Hartsfield’s traffic, for much of Atlanta’s international cachet. Over the past 15 years, Delta added flights to Chile, Argentina, Colombia and other Latin American destinations. The countries then opened consulates or trade offices in Atlanta.
“And then business started flowing here and trade back and forth blossomed,” Williams said. “International business in Atlanta rides Delta’s coattails.”
The airport pegs its economic impact across the metro Atlanta region at $14.7 billion in direct business revenue. About 58,000 jobs depend directly upon the airport.
A global economic rebound surely would raise the airport’s financial impact, particularly with more flights leaving the terminal for new markets in Brazil, Russia, India and China.
But as the recession worsened Delta canceled direct flights from Atlanta to Shanghai; Mumbai, India; and other overseas destinations.
“That was quite a bummer for me; I was a little bit peeved,” Maindarkar said. “Now I either fly from here to Paris to Bangalore or JFK to Mumbai to Bangalore.”
Still, Hartsfield-Jackson is much better than his previous hometown airport.
“I used to live in New Jersey and fly out of an airport called Newark,” Maindarkar said. “My goodness. That was terrible.”
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