Will Atlanta ever have a second airport? Delta is the ultimate arbiter of that - part one

Atlanta's Hartsfield-Jackson International is the world's busiest airport, by some margin, and has been for many years.

It isn't the busiest international airport - that is Dubai International - but passenger volumes continue to grow, mainly thanks to Delta Air Lines' huge domestic hub & spoke operation, which was the raison d'être for the airport's existence in the first place; it wasn't identified for local point-to-point traffic growth, rather as a transit point.

A lesser known fact is that five decades ago the City of Atlanta bought two large tracts of land outside the city, either of which might be used in the future for building a second airport.

While those land parcels have lain there gathering grass, a private company, Propeller Investments, tried to turn a general aviation facility into that second airport over a decade ago, but fell foul of vested interests that included Delta, which is wedded to Hartsfield-Jackson and vice versa.

Now the city has to make a decision on what to do with the land, which is coveted by the State Natural Resources for environmental protection.

The City won't be rushed into a decision, but one has to be made, which weighs its relationship with Delta against the fact that Hartsfield-Jackson cannot be extended indefinitely. It is already operating close to levels never experienced by entire major city collections of airports, let alone one.

The other question is; who would operate a new airport? For that, at least, there are some suitable candidates.

This is part one of a two-part report.