Are you flying to Atlanta for Super Bowl LIII or just passing through? Either way, here’s a handy guide to the very busy Hartsfield-Jackson Atlanta International Airport.
Welcome to the 150,000 people flying into Atlanta for the 53rd annual Super Bowl. (Super Bowl LIII for fans of Roman numerals.)
Despite the winter storm weather, you’ve landed at Hartsfield-Jackson Atlanta International Airport, the world’s busiest passenger airport. We handled nearly 104 million passengers in 2017.
Think of it as the biggest transfer point in the known universe.
On an average day, the airport moves 275,000 people with an average of 2,700 arrivals and departures. Many of those people fly into the ATL to transfer from one flight to another flight, here only for a brief time before departing our fair city. (Yes, we refer to Atlanta by its airport code.)
You may think it’s time to run to your car service and drive those 10 miles to Mercedes-Benz Stadium in downtown Atlanta or a few miles more to your hotel in midtown Atlanta or swanky Buckhead.
Vazquez Torres flew more than 200 days last year, covering over 134,000 miles and visiting 45 US cities (plus South Korea and the Philippines) for her work as an anti-racism consultant and trainer.
The key to understanding the Atlanta airport is planning, says Vazquez Torres. The airport has a center corridor, which is marked by the plane train and moving walkways. The concourses cross over the corridor. Most restaurants are concentrated in the middle of each concourse, where passengers enter to go to their gates.
Concourse T is closest to the airport entrance and exit, followed by A, B, C, D, E and F. You can take the train to Concourse F, the international terminal, but it also has its own entrances and exits. (Although some international flights will use Concourse E.)
The fastest way into Atlanta
It’s really the fastest way to get around, especially with all y’all in town and all the game-related street closures. It can run about $5 for a round trip from the airport to downtown. (Buy a MARTA card at the airport MARTA station.)
There are escalators and elevators to get you down to the trains, and MARTA can take you from the airport to many hotels in downtown, midtown and other neighborhoods around the Atlanta metro area.
It’s never as busy as the New York City subway, which means there’s room for your suitcases. (It can smell a little in the elevators. Just breathe through your mouth for a minute.)
Not to Atlanta! From your concourse to baggage claim and the exits. Depending on where you land (from Concourse E through Concourse T) able-bodied passengers can walk instead of taking the plane train to the exits.
“In the land where we count our steps, walk the length of the airport,” says Vazquez Torres. “It’s three miles, and from the beginning in Concourse E to T, it takes 35 minutes at a brisk pace.”
Just head down to the plane train and keep walking instead of taking the train.
