While its “world’s busiest” moniker took a hit during the travel pandemonium that was 2020, Hartsfield-Jackson Atlanta International Airport remained the most efficient airport in the world for the 18th straight year.
That’s according to the Air Transport Research Society, a consortium of academics, who during an Aug. 27 virtual meeting voted the Atlanta airport into the top spot out of more than 200 major airports worldwide. Atlanta has retained the position since 2000.
It was the second year in a row that the group had to come to a decision on its benchmarking report remotely, as the world continues to battle COVID-19 and the Delta variant, which has emerged as a threat to a nascent travel recovery.
“With unprecedented challenges impacting travel throughout the world, 2020 was an unprecedented year,” said new airport General Manager Balram “B” Bheodari, in a news release. “ATL’s No. 1 priority is providing a safe and efficient experience for the traveling public, so receive the society’s 2021 top efficiency award is truly a distinguished honor.”
That commitment was tested in a new way Tuesday afternoon, when a suspicious package in Concourse F, the international terminal, temporarily halted movement of passengers, prompting some to lodge frustrated complaints on Twitter of stalled shuttle buses and conflicting instructions from different authorities about how to evacuate. The airport’s Twitter feed marked the incident as resolved about an hour later.
In a recent Global Atlanta interview with Mr. Bheodari, the general manager expressed confidence in the resiliency of the air travel recovery, noting that international and business travel were lagging even as the leisure category soared.