European Stars And Stripes (Newspaper) - September 11, 1980, Darmstadt, Hesse                                World s largest passenger terminal Complex opens sept. 21 at Atlanta internal by Leonard Hill assistant foal re editor Don t know where i m piling to  goes a worn old Juki told throughout inc Southeast but one thing 15 sure Ril change planes at  starting sept. 2t the  Sho Bijj be less Harrow ing. That s when the world s largest airline passenger terminal Complex 378 acres opens i business at Atlanta International Airport two Days Afler ceremonial hoopla and speeches. The shift from Long outdated facilities being vacated nearby adds significant new dimension to Atlanta s historic Rule As the Gateway so the Southeast inc fastest  Region of the country. For the rapidly expanding at inti Coit Cimon with Europe and for Many . Military pct son Ucol ind Istir families it represents a Miles loue in Complex is Midfield Between runways. International Wing juts from one of the twin Domestic terminals connected by underground rapid transit system to tour Domestic concourses of 26 Gates each. Nifon ice and technology. Trie Mammoth s750 million terminal Complex Symbol ires Atlanta s determination to remain the Southeast s business financial and convention capital. More than anything else the Airport Hai fuelled Ibi City s spectacular growth from a sleepy Southern town to a major Metropolis just 30 years Ogo Atlanta was about the same size As Birmingham and even smaller than Memphis but asian la s Early commitment to air travel enabled it to pull Well a cad of those cities. Atlanta dominates inc flow of air traffic More than any other regional Hub in the . In 1978, according to the latest statistics about to percent of Atlanta Passen Gers used the Airport As a connection Point to other flights rather than As a destination another 15 percent Fly in and out on business or pleasure Only 15 percent of the local population uses the Airport. Chicago s o litre International ranked a Distant Sec Ond As a Transfer Hub with Soj percent transit passengers followed closely by Dallas tort Worth and Denver. The overburdened terminal of what technically is named Mansfield Atlanta International Airport after inc late Mavor William b. Hartsfield was built in 1961. It had become a traveler s Nightmare and i a officials Sec the new facility also As a Way to prevent desertion of air a raffia toothed less crowded cities. Last year Wilh same 1,-�50 planes taking off and land ing each Day. Nearly 41 million passengers passed through the old terminal facilities 10 times the number they were designed to handle. That makes Atlanta the second busiest Airport in the world in terms of passenger a fume and number of scheduled air Carrier takeoffs and landings according to Atlanta commissioner of aviation George Berry. The traffic Leader still remains o Hare which proc Essed nearly 48 million passengers in 1979. Bul Atlanta s population is Only 1.9 million compared with Chicago s Page t4 the stars and stripes 7.7 million. In August 1979 Atlanta International became the tint Airport in inc world at which one Carrier Delta aft lines by sided a million passengers in a single month. The key to it Airport s phenomenal growth is highly refined Hub Hud spoke concept relatively Small jets such As dc-9s and Boeing 727� shuttle Hack and Forth among cities All Over the South cast and Atlanta where several limes a Day they Erojo Donn Cal with one another and with wide bodied jell that whisk passengers to both coasts the big cities in the Midwest and abroad. International flights comprise Only about one percent of the Airport s business la has been a Madhouse in the outdated terminal Dur ing those major Cross connection periods. The feeder system was developed because few cities in inc Southeast individually could generate the traffic to justify Long haul flights. Passengers could have Access to flights by first going to a Hub. The Hub could have been located anywhere but it naturally evolved at the Region biggest and Best Airport at the Lime Atlanta. The new facility expands Atlanta s air service capability to at least 55 million passengers annually and the number of aircraft boarding positions from 72 to Potenti ally 138 chicago1 o Hare has 94 boarding areas. Of the 1w Gates operating As the Complex opens the most 39 will belong to Delta Eastern airlines will have 32. Together Eastern and Delta account for 90 percent of Atlanta s air traffic. The Complex milk South of be ensling Termi Nal Structure Sill Between iwo runways on one Side and n third on the of bar. Two parallel and connected Check in terminals Are perpendicular to a Row of four parallel Domestic boarding concourses Wilh 26 Gate positions each. An additional six International gales arc attached to one of the Domestic terminals. Of a total 12,000 close in automobile parking spaces twice the number at the old terminal4,700 Ore in parking decks adjacent to the two terminals. Building the Complex in the Middle of the present Airfield Between the ensling system of parallel runways giving Rise to its local designation As Midfield Termi Nal greatly reduces tailing Lime and congestion be tween gales and runways. One thousand feet of apron separates each of the foor concourses so that to wide body Jeu such a the a loll or do Locan taxi botwen them at the same time even while another two wide body planes Are parked i their Gates. The three Story International terminal Boariu an into Valion in . Immigration and customs procedures the latest one Stop Federal inspection service in the court in. Up to 800 arriving passengers an hour can Pasi through the formalities. Thursday my tin in at of w a ". Tittl 24 bus 250 ii Cap can Pel Oside b Pasi Iii Tou Loul h out Kwh tits we