Atlanta airport's new fifth runway to have "reliever" role

<p>The new fifth runway at Hartsfield-Jackson Atlanta International Airport is open for business, but throughout the summer, air traffic controllers plan to ease the runway into its new role of curbing delays at the world's busiest airport.</p><p>Although the new $1.28 billion runway opened for regular commercial use on Saturday, air traffic controllers said they will increase the role of the 9,000-foot strip of concrete this summer.</p><p>"We'll use it as a reliever when arrivals on the other runways get too stretched out," said Gary Brittain, air traffic controller at the airport's tower.</p><p>Airport controllers only landed about one plane an hour on the new runway. The airport typically has more than 100 arrivals per hour.</p><p>One such landing on the new runway included a Delta Air Lines Inc. McDonnell Douglass MD-88 jet that arrived in the morning. Controllers timed how long it took for the plane to taxi from the runway to the gate concourses, a distance of more than a mile.</p><p>"Hey, that only took 8 minutes," a controller told the Delta crew over the radio.</p><p>"Not bad," the pilot said. "We'll work on it.</p><p>Federal Aviation Administration officials estimate it may take up to 15 minutes for planes to taxi from the fifth runway to the airport's gates. It could take even longer, controllers say, depending on airport traffic.</p><p>But passengers likely will be willing to trade an occasionally longer taxi time for smaller airplane delays, said Chris McGinnis, editor of Expedia Travel Trendwatch.</p><p>Before the new runway opened, air traffic had become so congested at the Atlanta airport that a quarter of all scheduled flights were delayed _ ranking fourth worst among the nation's major airports, according to federal Bureau of Transportation statistics. The average delay in Atlanta runs 17 minutes, airport officials previously said.</p><p>Airport officials previously promised the new runway would cut the airport's delays in half, which also could mean fewer and shorter delays throughout the air transportation network in the United States and possibly around the world.</p><p>That's because no other airport in the world handles more passengers. Nearly 86 million people pass through the Atlanta airport each year on more than 980,000 flights _ one taking off or landing about every 30 seconds. They fly direct to 157 cities in the U.S. and 65 others in 43 different countries.</p><p>____</p><p>On the Net:</p><p>HASH(0x1cdc4a0)</p><p>___</p><p>HASH(0x1cdc5fc)</p>

http://accesswdun.com/article/2006/5/123245