Friday, Febraury 27, 2004

Hartsfield traffic approaches pre-9/11 level

Hartsfield-Jackson Atlanta International Airport announced today that Atlanta’s airport accommodated 79.08 million travelers in 2003, which is the second-highest annual passenger traffic in the Airport’s history.

The 2003 passenger volumes represent a 2.88 percent increase over 2002-passenger traffic and near the record passenger count of 80.16 million travelers set in 2000.

“Hartsfield-Jackson’s year-end data demonstrates that the airport is quickly approaching pre-Sept. 11 activity,” said Aviation General Manager Ben DeCosta.

“In fact, in December 2003 Hartsfield-Jackson welcomed 6.77 million travelers, giving the world’s busiest passenger airport its largest December passenger volume in the Airport’s history.”

Delta Air Lines and its subsidiaries (Atlantic Southeast Airlines and Comair) transported 61.43 million passengers, while AirTran remained as the second busiest air carrier at Hartsfield-Jackson with 10.26 million travelers in 2003.

“Our strong performance is a reflection that the nation’s aviation industry is recovering, and the air transportation system must be prepared for future activity.” Added DeCosta. “To assure that the airport is prepared to meet future demand, we continue to move forward with Hartsfield-Jackson’s expansion program.”