ATL Quickly Running Out Of Space To Grow

US Secretary of Transportation Mary E. Peters told community leaders in Atlanta, GA they should strongly consider a second airport -- before putting up $1 million for the study.

Peters (right) traveled to Hartsfield-Jackson International Airport Tuesday to announce her decision. She believes by 2025 airports in Atlanta, Chicago, Las Vegas and San Diego could be overwhelmed by passenger demand, according to the Atlanta Journal-Constitution.

"Now is the time for Atlanta to consider having multiple commercial airports," she said.

Airport General Manager Ben DeCosta agreed the time is right for the metro area to take a serious look the possibility of a second airport to supplement ATL, considered the worlds busiest with about 85 million passengers going through the facility each year.

The City of Atlanta purchased tracts of about 10,000 acres in Dawson and Paulding counties in the 1970s for a possible second airport. It is not immediately known if those properties could be considered in the study.

According to DeCosta, officials will use the grant to study all options of increasing ATL's capacity, and acknowledges the airport's 4,750-acre site is quickly running out of space. The field's fifth runway -- just a year old -- passes over I-285.

"You can get capacity without a second airport, but the most straight-forward way to get it is a second airport," DeCosta said. "I don't want to get into specifics, but a study would include the option of a second airport."

DeCosta estimates ATL will reach maximum capacity in little more than a decade as the airport's passenger load is growing at about 3 percent per year.

A new airport could be functional by 2020 or so -- provided all the pieces to the rather complex puzzle fall into place, he said.

Those puzzle pieces include approval from local governments and major airlines and there's no guarantee the study will lead to a second airport as there mere mention of such a thing invites controversy.

Georgia state transportation officials proposed expanding a small airport -- such as Briscoe Field in Gwinnett County or Cobb County's McCollum Field -- in the 1990s into a reliever airport for ATL. Those ideas were shouted down in public forums, however, by residents concerned about noise.

FMI: www.atlanta-airport.com, www.dot.gov