But Some Are Afraid Plan Encourages Cost Overruns

The Atlanta City Council approved some heady spending at Monday night's meeting, voting unanimously to budget about $1.2 billion to build a new international terminal at Hartsfield-Jackson International Airport.

Officials of Delta Airlines, the airport's largest user, had earlier protested the size of a contingency fund for the project, but the Atlanta Journal-Constitution reports they remained quiet immediately before the 12-to-none vote by the council.

Delta and other airlines support the idea of the terminal, and will share construction costs, expected to total about $1.6 billion. Their problem with the plan as passed is allowing for $168 million in cost overruns. Delta wanted a contingency of more like $58 million.

To paraphrase the line from Field of Dreams, "if you authorize it, they will spend." Or, as Cyriel Kronenburg of the International Air Transport Association told the council Monday, "If you give your kid a $20 allowance and ask him to come back at the end of the week with $15, there's no way it's going to happen."

But Hartsfield-Jackson General Manager Ben DeCosta said the council's action will avoid interruptions in the construction of the Maynard Holbrook Jackson Jr. International Terminal, scheduled to open in November of 2011. "This train is moving and we want to keep it moving," he said after the vote.

In a move to address airline concerns, the council also passed an amendment to require that DeCosta brief the airlines and city officials four times a year about how money from the contingency fund is being spent. DeCosta responded, "I'm happy to do it. We're transparent and accountable."

The new terminal will have soaring glass walls and a view of the Atlanta skyline, its own exit off I-75, a new parking garage and gates for 12 widebody jets. Together with the 28 gates at the existing international terminal, up to 40 international flights could be parked at ATL at one time... an important key to Delta's plan to expand its presence on profitable international routes.

FMI: www.atlanta-airport.com, www.delta.com, www.iata.org