What are Atlanta Airport's operational quirks for pilots?

Summary

Atlanta Airport uses inventive architecture for efficient aircraft movements.
Atlanta has standard taxi routes and plenty of ramps for better traffic flow.
Waypoints are named after works of fiction, making operations easier for pilots.

The title of busiest airport in the world has belonged to Hartsfield-Jackson Atlanta International Airport for many years. The airport, named for former mayors William B. Hartsfield and Maynard Jackson, is the main mega-hub for Delta Air Lines and a focus city for Frontier and Southwest. Hartsfield-Jackson has consistently been the busiest airport in terms of passenger traffic for the past two decades and spans 4,700 acres just south of downtown Atlanta. This article will discuss the experience of flying at the world’s busiest passenger airport and highlight some interesting operational points.

Straight lines may be the shortest distance, but…

Atlanta Airport uses simple but inventive architecture to move more passengers than any other airport. In 2007, Atlanta was one of the first airports in the world to open a perimeter taxiway to increase traffic flow. Specifically, the Victor Taxiway was built so that planes could bypass the interior runway on the north side of the airport. The outer runway 8L/26R is used almost exclusively for landing, while the inner runway 8R/26L is used for departures.

In the past, pilots had to wait several minutes before receiving runway crossing instructions after landing. This led to a lot of downtime and reduced traffic flow, as departures had to take place every so often to allow a group of arrivals to cross the track. Victor bypasses the track, allowing frantic starts off 8R/26L.

The Victor taxiway was so successful that the Atlanta Airport Authority built an identical bypass runway on the south side of the field. Planes landing on 9R/27L and 10/28 can taxi around indoor runway 9L/27R on the “Whiskey Loop”, which was built to resemble the “Victor Loop”. Both of these expressions are approved standard taxiing phraseologies that pilots and controllers use when issuing and rereading operational instructions.

Where did they build a track?!?

Another interesting thing about the Atlanta layout is that Runway 10/28, at the far south, is the only operational runway (not counting taxiways) built on a highway. The 9,000-foot (2,743 m) grooved concrete runway passes above I-285, one of metro Atlanta’s three major arteries. I-285 is 11 lanes wide where it passes under the east side of Runway 10/28.

Although visible to drivers on the highway, pilots may only notice a highway below them after landing on Runway 10 while on Taxiway SG. The tall trees, buildings and general concentration required during flight make the highway overpass go unnoticed by most pilots.

Standard taxi routes

Atlanta has more standard taxi routes than almost any other airport in the world. Standard taxi routes were covered in an article earlier this year about Dallas-Fort Worth International, another truly huge and busy airport. Atlanta, like DFW, has many aircraft operating simultaneously, requiring standard routes. This allows controllers to issue a 3-4 word authorization that transmits a multi-sentence instruction. Atlanta has no less than ten standard taxi routes. Those used by controllers depend on the direction in which traffic is flowing at the airport.

Photo: FAA

Once pilots land on Runway 28, in the far south, they may be asked to taxi via the “Pink West” route. This indicates that drivers should exit 28 to the right, then drive onto Sierra Golf, turn left onto Sierra Charlie and switch to another tower frequency on the radio. They continue by turning left onto Romeo, then stay clear of 27L at the end and wait for further instructions.

From there, a controller can issue another standard instruction, such as “taxi via Whiskey loop” (as already discussed). This allows Atlanta controllers to issue just three instructions: “Pink West, Cross 27L, Whiskey Loop” to move a plane across nearly three miles of roadway. Talk about efficiency!

The countless ramps of ATL

If you’ve been a passenger departing from Atlanta, you may have noticed that you almost always push the door open and stop at a 45-degree angle to the terminal and taxiway. Unlike most other airports, thrust stops when the aircraft is parallel to the taxiway. Runway controllers in Atlanta issue this instruction to “push tail north/south at 45” so that more planes can access the gates and push back at any given time.

With such a high volume of traffic, every ounce of roadway must be used efficiently. Boeing 757-300s and larger aircraft cannot “push 45” because their length would prevent planes from using parallel taxiways on the ramp. These planes push back directly onto the line.

Speaking of ramps, Atlanta has an incredible nine two. The largest ramps are 1 through 5. Each is a two-way combination of doors leading into that alley. For example, Ramp 2 is a combination of the east side of the Concourse A doors and the west side of the Concourse B doors. Each ramp has a dedicated (non-FAA) controller that directs traffic onto it. After landing, the pilots don’t bother to tell the ground controller which gate they are heading to in ATL. Instead, they tell ATC which ramp they should park on.

1280px-Delta_plane_and_Atlanta_skyline-1

The Atlanta Ramps are another example of a well-organized machine. Unlike many other airports, there is little traffic congestion on ramps in Atlanta because they operate as two-way streets. Even if a plane has just backed up and is blocking one side of the lane, controllers are savvy enough to stagger the pushed planes so that arrivals can cross to the other side of the ramp to continue to their gate. For this reason, Atlanta has one of the best arrival time rates in the United States for such a massive airport.

On-to-in is one of a few key metrics airlines use to determine the total block duration of a flight or what is advertised to customers. “On-to-in” is the time it takes from landing to parking. Similarly, “out-to-off” is the time from pushback to takeoff, and “off-to-on” is the flight time. These three times make up the “block” of a flight. ATL is a leader in out-off and on-to-in metrics, an important metric in Delta’s on-time performance success.

Waypoint names

One final thing about Atlanta is the accuracy of some of the arrival and departure waypoint names. In particular, Atlanta’s SID and STAR nod to the fictional works of George Lucas and JRR Tolkien. A sample of waypoint names for some procedures are FRDDO, BLLBO, GONDR, MORDR and HOBBT, elements of The Hobbit and The Lord of the Rings (Tolkien). Likewise, Star Wars references abound when JJEDI 3 arrives, including NEWHP, DTSTR, CHWEE, XWING, EEWOK and TYFTR. It’s fun for pilots and controllers to reference and identify waypoints with intentional names from recognizable fictional series.

Hartsfield-Jackson Atlanta International Airport

Big, but not difficult

Although it is the busiest airport in the world, Atlanta deserves recognition for this pilot project for being one of the most operationally thoughtful (not to be confused with anything specific to the passenger experience). Everything about ATL’s design is intended to enable aircraft to move efficiently and safely, ideals at the heart of all modern airport designs. Operations take a little getting used to for pilots, but once the terrain features are known, it’s a fairly easy place to get in and out of.