Watching Atlanta live
The busiest airport on Earth: five parallel runways and an arrival every minute.
The layout
Hartsfield–Jackson Atlanta International is built for volume. Five runways run east to west: 8L/26R and 8R/26L on the north side, 9L/27R and 9R/27L on the south, and the fifth runway, 10/28, further south still. Between the pairs sits a straight row of concourses, T and A through F, linked underground by the Plane Train. From above the pattern is almost diagrammatic: two runway pairs, a spine of terminals, and taxiways everywhere.
Delta calls Atlanta home, and the airport handles more passengers than any other in the world in most years.
How the flow works
The runways are used in a fixed rhythm: the outer runways of each pair take arrivals and the inner ones take departures, so aircraft land, cross the departure runway at a designated crossing, and taxi to the concourses. East and west flow alternate with the wind. In west flow, arrivals descend from the east over the city and land on 26R and 27L, while departures climb out westbound on 26L and 27R.
Because Delta runs its schedule in banks, the map pulses: a wave of arrivals fills the taxiways and gates, then the same aircraft push back within the hour and queue for departure.
What to watch for
Delta's fleet gives the field its character: 737s, A321s, 757s and the big A350s and A330s for Europe, Asia and South America, along with the regional jets of Delta Connection. Southwest, Frontier and Spirit add colour. The southern summer brings dramatic afternoon thunderstorms; when a storm cell sits over the field, arrivals hold and the runway lights wait for the first aircraft to commit.
Count the aircraft on the airborne approaches in the Right now panel: on a busy evening there can be a dozen lined up on final for the two arrival runways at once.
More airports
- LAXLos Angeles International AirportFour parallel runways beside the Pacific, and the busiest airport on the US west coast.
- ORDChicago O'Hare International AirportEight runways, two giant hubs, and weather that keeps everyone on their toes.
- ATLHartsfield–Jackson Atlanta International AirportThe busiest airport on Earth: five parallel runways and an arrival every minute.
- DXBDubai International AirportA380s all day at the busiest international hub in the world.
- LHRLondon Heathrow AirportTwo runways running flat out, Terminal 5 at the west end.
- JFKJohn F. Kennedy International AirportCrossing runway pairs on Jamaica Bay, the AirTrain circling the terminals.
- SANSan Diego International AirportOne runway between the bay and downtown, and the steepest approach in the country.
- AMSAmsterdam Airport SchipholSix runways four metres below sea level, and a fifteen-minute taxi to the Polderbaan.
- DFWDallas/Fort Worth International AirportSeven runways on a site the size of Manhattan, Skylink threading the half-moon terminals.
- HNDTokyo Haneda AirportAsia's busiest airport: four runways on reclaimed land in Tokyo Bay, one standing on piers.
- BKKSuvarnabhumi AirportThree parallel runways around one vast terminal on the marsh east of the city.
- GRUSão Paulo/Guarulhos International AirportSouth America's busiest airport: two parallel runways on the plateau north-east of the biggest city in the hemisphere.
- SYDSydney Kingsford Smith AirportAustralia's busiest airport: two parallel runways reaching out into Botany Bay, and a third across them.
- SINSingapore Changi AirportThree parallel runways on reclaimed land at the eastern tip of the island, and the best-run hub in the world.
- HKGHong Kong International AirportThree parallel runways on an island built for the purpose, between the sea and the mountains of Lantau.