re: Atlanta Airport: Why are flights so concentrated there?

I've lived here since 2000 and this is the first time in 18 years the airport has been shut down.

LOL at anyone discussing why Atlanta is not a perfect HUB city for the South. Geographically it is almost perfect, not to mention its the South's biggest city so that makes even more sense.

As far as Atlanta not having more international flights, it shouldn't. The only flights it has are Delta and Delta partner flights internationally basically. Why would an airline with a hub closer to the eastern seaboard fly internationally out of Atl? Its further away, so they shouldn't.

Go pull up Flight Aware for Delta. Atlanta is the busiest airport in the world and it’s mostly Delta flights. Minneapolis and Detroit pale in comparison to Atlanta. Here is the link:
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Is there another city in the South worthy of a major airline hub?

Spoiler: No, there isn't.

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To be fair, Charlotte is a HUB too. So is DFW (I know not really the south).

I've never understood this complaint. I live on the Gulf Coast, these 3 hubs (CLT, DFW, and ATL) serve me great. If I go west, I usually go through DFW. North or Europe I use Charlotte or ATL, and south I use ATL usually. It works well.

Not sure why one half day issue causes people to freak out.

I use Delta quite a bit on my transpacific flights and always connect through Detroit. Life is so much easier that way. I was rerouted through Atlanta last month and quickly reminded why I hate that place.

Delta was wise to ditch Memphis. That is my home airport and I hate that place. It hasn’t changed in 30 years. They are finally consolidating everything into one terminal and refurbishing. It will never be more than a connector airport.

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I use Delta quite a bit on my transpacific flights and always connect through Detroit.

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DTW is an excellent airport. Delta is definitely very competitive in the mid west.

Unfortunately a lot of southern cities have limited (and sometimes zero) Delta service to DTW. The airline's preference is to trade system-wide resilience for efficiency gains of one super hub. They end up feeding as many passengers into Atlanta as they possibly can.

That's their decision and it reflects their priority. If I were a frequent flier based out of a southern airport (other than MSY, MEM, or ATL), I'd probably go with American Airlines or Southwest before Delta just to increase my options and avoid Atlanta. Even on good days, I dislike connecting in Atlanta. I think the concourses are too narrow, too congested, and too loud. I always seem to get stuck behind slow walkers or passengers lining up into the concourse.

As much as I appreciate having a large hub in the southern US, I honest hate ATL. I wish MEM, DTW, and MSY were mini-hubs for Delta. That would provide passengers in the south with more connecting options, increase Delta's quality of service, and reduce their dependency on ATL.

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Memphis is international?

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Memphis is currently FedEx's super hub. It was a major hub for Northwest Airlines. Delta kept it as a hub for about 5 years after they acquired Northwest. I think they ran nonstops to Amsterdam and Paris until 2013 or 2014.

Memphis currently only has international passenger service to Toronto and Cancun.

Could Nashville KBNA handle traffic as a hub?

(I've never flown to or through KBNA.)


Birmingham isn't built to be a hub. While it is an auxiliary or alternate for KATL, as it has a 12,000 ft runway, it's only other runway is a 7,100 ft North South runway that crosses the main 12,000 ft runway, and also has horrible approaches. (Remember the UPS plane that crashed at night landing on runway 18 due to low terrain.

Birmingham would have to do major neighborhood demolishing and terrain leveling to build new runways.


Interestingly, Huntsville aiport, which handles 747 international cargo flights, has a master plan in place to double the airport runways, to four and could handle the traffic if Delta needed to move to another hub.

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If Atlanta decides to open up second a north-side airport, for instance, Delta loses its stranglehold on the Atlanta market and they may threaten to leave. Atlanta doesn't want that because a lot of our businesses are here in small part due to the connectivity of the city due to being Delta's hub.

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Delta would never cease ATL being its largest hub. If a second airport opened, Delta would simply price the competitors out of the market by offering their own metal on same routes. AA did this with everyone that tried DAL for years. Southwest was the only carrier with roots established in that market.