Atlanta

It has been years since my wife, Jill, was asked to escort a group of journalists from the major U.S. newspapers and TV stations invited on the Boeing Jumbo 747 inaugural flight of Belgian Sabena Airlines. They were the first foreign carrier to offer daily service from Atlanta to Brussels, Belgium. The airline had also been the first foreign carrier to offer service into Atlanta a few days a week several years earlier.

The journalists experienced the VIP services on board the airline’s flagship aircraft. In those days, the first-class section had a moon-shaped bar upstairs in front of the aircraft near the entry to the cockpit. Service of the smartly dressed flight attendants was legendary as the first-class passengers were allowed between the downstairs seating and the upstairs bar after take-off.

Once the group arrived in Belgium, Jill led them on sightseeing tours of the capital, the site of the Battle of Waterloo, and the charming medieval city of Bruges. For two days, they traveled on a motorcoach operated by a Flemish company and for the other days on a motorcoach operated by a Wallon company. Belgium is divided into two parts: Flemish speaking is a derivative of the Dutch language, and Wallon that is French speaking.

In those days, Belgium had two people for every official government position, one Flemish-speaking and one French-speaking. That is no longer the case, although the division by language still exists today.

In the meantime, the well-known Belgian flag carrier is no longer in business as its 49% partner, Swissair, went bankrupt in 2001, which left Sabena insolvent as well. Most of Boeing’s Jumbos have also disappeared, but Atlanta kept on growing. Today, it is the busiest airport in the world in passenger count. Curiously, they only have about twenty foreign airlines compared to close to one hundred foreign airlines landing and taking off from New York Kennedy Airport. But the extraordinary dominance of Delta Airlines made the world record a reality.

Delta carries the most passengers through here and, despite the massive record numbers, it is one of the easiest large airports in the world once you are familiar with the layout. The airport consists of two terminals, Domestic and International, connecting seven concourses, T, A, B, C, D, E, and F. In general, the last two are reserved for international flights with some exceptions. No matter what concourse you arrive at, you walk to the center section and take an escalator or elevator one level down to the underground corridors. Here you have the option to walk to your next gate or take a train. The “Plane Train” operates every few minutes and connects every concourse.

If you have extra time, the underground pedestrian corridors have moving walkways, and the walls tell a story through fabulous displays of art and history. Art is a major part of the airport with over twenty permanent and revolving displays. One of my favorites is Zimbabwe in Africa, between Terminals T and A, and another one is the history of Atlanta connecting Terminals B and C.

“Flight Paths” is a 450-foot stretch of corridor between concourses A and B. Steve Waldeck is the artist responsible for creating this modern adaptation of a native Georgia forest. It was constructed featuring a canopy of 13,000 man-made leaves in greens, blues, yellows, and white on a black background. 24,000 LED lights, birds, and rain sound complete the relaxing vibe.

One of the best-known dirt car racetracks of its time in America was built in 1909 by the founder of the Coca-Cola Company, Asa Candler Sr. and his son. About fifteen years later, interest in dirt-car racing had waned considerably and the Candles sold the two-mile track on 287 acres of land to the city of Atlanta for approximately one million dollars. Candler Airfield was born. Today, what is now called “Atlanta International Airport” has adopted the names of influential mayors involved in expanding the airport. It has grown to 4,700 acres with five runways and terminal space of close to eight million square feet. Pitcairn Aviation, later renamed “Eastern Airlines,” was the first to begin scheduled service in 1928.

At the time, today’s main carrier was the world’s first aerial service to spray Georgia peach fields under the name:” Huff Daland Dusters” based in Macon, Georgia.

Two years later, the name changed to Delta Air Corporation when they started commercial passenger service out of the new Atlanta airport with three Air6-B monoplanes. They changed their name to Delta Airlines four years later. With an estimated 1,000 aircraft today, and close to three hundred more on order, the rest is history. Last year, Delta celebrated its 100-year anniversary with extraordinary events, including a Centennial Gala for employees at the famous Mercedes-Benz arena downtown. The stadium, originally built for the NFL Atlanta Falcons and MLS United FC, is also an ideal location for such a significant gala with a retractable roof and a six-story high 360-degree display. It is scheduled to host games of the 2026 World Soccer Championship in July this year.

Delta Airlines, under the leadership of popular CEO Ed Bastian, is known for taking better care of its employees than other major U.S carriers. If all their employees could reciprocate in taking care of passengers like most foreign carriers do, there would not be a better major airline in our country. On the positive side for passengers, the airline’s claim to fame is that they do not involuntarily remove a passenger from an overbooked flight. The gate staff simply offer more money to voluntarily offload passengers until they find willing people. In contrast, American Airlines bumped around 3,800 passengers over the last year, according to unconfirmed reports.

Atlanta Airport and the surrounding industry were a perfect location in the center of the eastern seaboard. Delta flies to 215 destinations out of Atlanta. To see this in context, Turkish Airlines flies to over 300 destinations out of Istanbul with only five hundred aircraft. As stated earlier, Delta has almost 1,000 airplanes. With over one hundred carriers, Dubai has more foreign airlines than any other airport in the world, and its home-based carrier, Emirates, owns more than half of the double-decker super jumbos, the Airbus A380.

We continue using Atlanta as our favorite connecting point in the United States to almost anywhere in the world. Normally, Fridays and Sundays are the busiest days at Atlanta Airport, with Tuesday as the least busy. In the airport, the international concourses E and F have better food and bar options, and if you have time, you can go there, even if your next flight leaves from another concourse. The airport also offers “Minute Suites” for rent, where one can rest for short periods of time. In the meantime, let’s keep flying. There is nothing like soaring above the clouds and viewing the ground below from your aircraft window before landing in the shadow of your own plane.