Atlanta Airport to Address Hurdle for International Travelers Accessing Transit During World Cup

Hartsfield-Jackson Atlanta International Airport is working on a temporary fix to ensure the transfer shuttle between its international and domestic terminals doesn’t impede transit usage during this summer’s FIFA World Cup, General Manager Ricky Smith said Thursday. 

As Atlanta prepares to host eight matches, MARTA’s direct train service from the airport to the stadium and nearby FIFA Fan Fest at Centennial Olympic Park is a significant competitive advantage over many other host cities, some of which feature venues a hour or more outside their city limits. 

A one-way MARTA fare is just $2.50, as MARTA Deputy General Manager Rhonda Allen reminded journalists on a media call, giving familiar fans and foreign visitors a way to avoid jammed highways and pricey parking decks to access the downtown festivities affordably on match days. 

But foreign guests arriving in Hartsfield-Jackson’s concourses E and F and clearing customs in the international terminal could emerge in summer heat to long waits for buses over to the domestic side.

For nearly 15 years, these shuttles have ferried passengers on a 15-minute sojourn to MARTA’s Airport station, nestled between the North and South terminals. That’s a stark contrast from the zippy airside Plane Train, whose efficiency is fundamental to ATL’s title as the world’s busiest and most efficient airport.

MARTA has never extended its rail network to the international terminal, and at peak times, waits for the shuttle buses can exceed half an hour, leaving some to abandon plans to utilize public transit. Those international visitors who stick it out face a significantly longer journey than MARTA’s promised 20-minute ride to core downtown venues. 

“That bottleneck is an issue that we’ve been dealing with for some time and we are working on an interim fix just for FIFA,” said Mr. Smith, noting that he couldn’t provide more specifics at the moment. “A long-term fix is more complicated.”

Mr. Smith touted the airport’s international connectivity as a key selling point for the city, noting 86 foreign destinations reachable via a nonstop flight, and credited the city’s diverse global communities with helping position ATL as a global hub. 

“We’re the busiest airport in the world — we have more foreign flagged carriers than domestic carriers, and we’ve been the busiest in the world for 24 out of the last 25 years, and the No. 2 airport isn’t very close. That doesn’t happen by accident,” Mr. Smith said. 

Atlanta Convention and Visitors Bureau President William Pate pointed out that not all international guests will be coming from abroad. Cape Verde, an island nation of just over 600,000 people, has a diaspora nearly that populous living within the United States. 

“If 10 percent of them come, we will have filled up two-thirds of Mercedes-Benz Stadium,” Mr. Pate said. 

By some estimates, more than a million people of Haitian origin can access Atlanta domestically, a distinction that has grown all the more important amid a ban on travel from the Caribbean country of 10 million.  

“We think no matter what country is here, we’re going to get very big crowds, and it will be a mixture of international as well as folks that live in the United States that comes,” Mr. Pate said. 

MARTA will be ready with “transit ambassadors,” gleaming new train cars and a new “Better Breeze” fare collection system enabling mobile phone payments, Ms. Allen said. 

“There’s just really no match when it comes to travel time and the cost to get from the airport to downtown to these venues and centers of activity,” she said. 

For match days, the airport and other stakeholders are working on signage and volunteer interpretation in the languages of the countries set to play here, among them Portuguese, Haitian Creole, Spanish and Arabic. 

Providing a welcoming environment is key for the airport, which Mr. Smith sees as the “living room” for Atlanta, the first and last impression many travelers will have. Programming and advertising will give travelers a feel for Atlanta within the airport, he said, but also will pay homage to the visiting cultures.

“We will greet you with that wholesome Atlanta feel — but we also want you to have a sense of place for yourself as well, so for those countries that will be competing in Atlanta and others that will be visiting Atlanta, you will see yourself here through our marketing and event planning activities.”