Atlanta, Chicago busiest airports in US
Hartsfield-Jackson Atlanta International Airport was again the US’s busiest in terms of flights, according to new government data.
The Atlanta airport logged 976,307 flights in 2006, down 0.4% from its 980,386 flights in 2005, the Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) said. Flights include takeoffs and landings. This marked the second year in a row for Atlanta to be the US’s busiest airport.
Chicago O’Hare International Airport was listed as second busiest, with 958,643 flights in 2006. That number was down 1.4% from the 972,246 flights it had in 2005, the FAA said.
Atlanta and Chicago have run neck-and-neck in recent years to claim the title of the nation’s – and therefore, the world’s busiest airport. Atlanta already claimed to be the world’s busiest airport in terms of passengers. The FAA does not maintain passenger statistics.
Atlanta airport spokeswoman Sterling Payne told the AP there were two reasons for the airport’s ranking: “Its capacity and efficiency.”
She said opening a fifth runway in May benefited the airport.
Last year’s expansion of international flights by Delta Air Lines Inc. — which has its primary hub in Atlanta — was another factor that caused the Atlanta airport to remain No. 1.
“We had a total paradigm change looking at Delta’s travel patterns,” Ms Payne said. She said Atlanta led the world in flights last year, with O’Hare second and London’s Heathrow Airport third.
Dallas-Fort Worth International Airport was ranked third, with 702,713 flights in 2006, down 2.2% from 718,207 flights in 2005, the FAA said.
In July, based on data for the first six months of 2006, O’Hare was listed by the FAA as the nation’s busiest airport with 477,001 flights compared to Atlanta’s 472,431 flights.
But Payne said the Atlanta airport had more flights in the latter part of the year.
Mario Diaz, deputy general manager of the Atlanta airport, said the overall decline in the number of flights at the top three airports was likely related to strategic decisions by the airlines, such as reducing the size of jets and cutting back on unprofitable flights.
“Basically I think these numbers are mostly a reflection of the fact that the airlines have been able to cut back on capacity and gotten back some of the economic clout to raise prices,” he said.
Report by David Wilkening
David
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