Atlanta is one of the most challenging airports in the country to navigate. Along with Denver, it has some of the consistently worst TSA experiences. And traffic into the airport can approach LAX levels of backup at peak times. There’s one way, though, that the Atlanta airport has just gotten better for American Airlines passengers.
US Airways and American agreed to merge in February 2013, and the merger closed in December 2013 with US Airways management taking over the airline. That set off a long string of work to integrate the two carriers.
In reality they were merging three airlines, because the work to combine America West and US Airways never finished. Those two carriers were still operating separately, as US Airways East and US Airways West.
They got onto a single operating certificate. They merged US Airways Dividend Miles into American AAdvantage (while following US Airways plans for a revenue-based program). They combined pilot and flight attendant seniority lists, and transitioned to a single maintenance platform.
But that’s not all of the work that had to happen. Going into 2023, a decade later, it still wasn’t done. American Airlines and US Airways had separate airport operations, and different gates, in 140 locations. Atlanta was the final station to consolidate gates and that’s just happened.
From an internal American Airlines communication with employees:
American Airlines has 7 gates on the T Concourse in Atlanta, and they’re all contiguous now, and aligned with the airline’s lounge as well. Their flights, though, are limited as a result of the Northeast Alliance with JetBlue, which has been ruled by a federal judge to be anti-competitive. American Airlines no longer flies to New York from Atlanta, having turned over that flying to their smaller New York partner.
However, if you can make American Airlines flights work for you from Atlanta, it’s a great little station with relatively few elite customers and a strong chance of upgrades.
Meanwhile, the consolidation of gates does not mean that all American Airlines gates are contiguous everywhere. There are airports where American Airlines has exclusive use, and where they also share gates, and those shared gates may not be near their exclusive ones. That’s the case at a place like my home airport in Austin.
Similarly, in Los Angeles legacy American Airlines meant terminal 4 while US Airways gates are in terminal 5. Terminal 4 is full, there’s no way to consolidate without significant capital investment. They now use not just terminals 4 and 5 but also gates in the Tom Bradley terminal. Fortunately these terminals are all connected airside now.
That did take a while… At SAT, they just consolidated like 4 or 5 months ago from Old American in Terminal B and Old US Air in Terminal A… to all flights out of Terminal B… It always caused much confusion for passengers as checkin was all in Terminal B.
They did some gate shuffling and construction with United. I believe 2 new gates were constructed; Gates b1a and B9. b1a going to United and b8 going to AA… However, United didn’t net a new gate as it gave up B8 to AA. So at the end, AA got 2 new gates in Terminal B (B8 & B9)
They told me this was coming when I last flew AA in January. The new gates at the end of the concourse enabled United and AA to both operate fully in T. The Admirals Club there is pretty bad, but usually empty on the few times I’ve been able to enter on the start of an international biz itinerary.
Re AA LAX:
“They now use not just terminals 4 and 5 but also gates in the Tom Bradley terminal. Fortunately these terminals are all connected airside now.”
Connected, yes.
Ability to move with ease from one terminal to another? No
Better have your sneakers an track suit ready… No moving walkways for you.
Well, not quite… “it’s a great little station with relatively few elite customers and a strong chance of upgrades” …because so many AA elites travel to ATL. I’m EP and on an AA jet most weeks. On my last flight in June from ATL to DFW there were 5 Concierge Key and at least 80 other people boarding Group 1 (I hung back and boarded almost last just to see how this was going to go). The whole experienced flyer crowd that day was joking and laughing at how comical the situation became before groups 2-4 were called. Needless to say I DID NOT get upgraded, neither the 100 hour priority, nor being 1st on the list for that flight helped. However, I will agree that having all gates in the T concourse is a huge plus. I’ll also comment that the AA folks who staff the ATL Admiral’s club are phenomenal!
Is it safe to assume at DL got AA’s gate out in D?
Atlanta is one of the most challenging airports in the country to navigate.
Eh? It’s all connected by the plane train. It’s one of the easiest airports in the world to navigate.
Along with Denver, it has some of the consistently worst TSA experiences.
OK, yep TSA here is awful.
And traffic into the airport can approach LAX levels of backup at peak times.
Really? There’s 3 terminals to take a car into. Maybe you are just going to the wrong terminal, don’t have Pre or Clear? From my office in Hapeville to a SkyClub takes me 30-45 minutes tops. Take the park and ride. It’s easy and way faster than LAX.
The worst was the the old LGA. The USAIR and AA departures were 1/2 mile with passengers continuing going to to wrong terminal missing flights.
For Delta flyers, sadly they seem to have gotten American’s D gates and DL is running full-sized narrowbodies out of them despite gate space that was deigned for tiny regional jets and the concourse-widening project that will fix that will be a while until completion.
@ Gary — “Atlanta is one of the most challenging airports in the country to navigate. Along with Denver, it has some of the consistently worst TSA experiences.”
WTH? Atlanta is one of EASIEST airports in the US to navigate. The design is genius and way, way, way, way ahead of its time. Would you prefer to change terminals at JFK or LAX or ORD or SFO? Furthermore, security with PreCheck, CLEAR, or Delta’s Digital ID is one of the fastest in the country. You really shouldn’t bash ATL when you apparently don’t utilize it.
@Gene – navigate in terms of getting to the curb and getting through security, not as a connecting passenger.
“security with PreCheck, CLEAR, or Delta’s Digital ID is one of the fastest in the country.”
CLEAR lines in Atlanta are among the longest in the country, because Delta which has an ownership stake in CLEAR has worked to get so many of its SkyMiles members signed up. Atlanta security is better than Denver, but it is not at all among the fastest in the country.
“You really shouldn’t bash ATL when you apparently don’t utilize it.” I do, actually, because it’s how you get to and leave Atlanta… Was just there in the last week and a half.
The length of the line is not what matters but how long it takes to clear them. I was recently in the main pre-check line on a Monday morning and the line went on forever but it moved and I cleared faster than I have in other airports at the same time.
The reason why ATL has such long security lines is because it has massive checkpoints but very few of them.
and remember that UA/CO also had split operations at ATL which took years to resolve but somehow they seemed to get on the T concourse together faster than AA.
And since the reason neither could relocate quickly is because the T concourse had to be expanded and a Delta ground support facility was in the way, I’m sure the discussions took time trying to figure out who would pay for the expansion and the disposition of the vacated gates – which ultimately ended up in DL’s hands. and no airline has yet been turned away from access to ATL – unless they try to bring in an A380 on less than a month’s notice.
It took Delta a decade of fighting at Dallas Love Field to get a single gate – but they eventually won and have more than doubled the amount of seats they now offer.
The final chapter of the AA/US merger saga. The merger was enacted with all the skill and foresight you’d expect from the legacy AmericaWest management group who have consistently shown a stunning inability to effectively run any airline that’s not an ULCC.
Both AA & UA use T-Gates leaving Delta to use concourses A-E. T-Gates are directly connected to the terminal and security not requiring the plane train to get to them. A-E require the train. I love flying AA or UA out of Atlanta since it’s much quicker to get to the gates. And AA & UA lounges are next to the gates too.
BTW, Gary you’re flat wrong about Atlanta being difficult to navigate through. In fact, it is incredibly easy despite being the world’s busiest airport.
Once you’re past security, all terminals (even the international terminal) are connected by one single train airside. Which large airport in the US has this set up? Most large airports require you to be exposed to the elements and go through security again.
From an earlier comment: “For Delta flyers, sadly they seem to have gotten American’s D gates and DL is running full-sized narrowbodies out of them despite gate space that was deigned for tiny regional jets…”
Nope. D was designed for other mainline airlines, back when there was actual competition. CO, HP, KP, NW, QQ, TW, W7, WV, etc. Part of C was for turboprops, and regional jets came later when airlines decided to start cutting costs and outsource what had been mainline flights.
@ Gary — OK, I’ll give you that ATL may not have the “fastest” security at 5-10 mins for PreCheck and Clear, but ATL does not have “consistently some of the worst TSA experiences.” Regarding accessibility and traffic and my assumption that you are coming and going from North Terminal, instead ALWAYS arrive at Lower South Terminal, and you will save time. If no bags to check, use Door LS1, take escalator up, at top turn right and you will be right near Clear/PreCheck entry. For arrival to ATL, try Limo choice from uber/lyft and they will pick you up a the same door where you arrived LS1. Much faster, easier, more pleasant and costs only marginally more than a regular uber/lyft.
PM1,
Delta uses half of the T concourse while AA and UA use the other half.
Delta has/uses gates on every concourse at ATL
Delta has more Sky Clubs at ATL than any other airline has clubs at any airport in the world. At least one per concourse.
ATL is the world’s busiest airport and could use wider concourses but works well at what it does. Other than the DL terminal concourse at DTW – which handles far fewer flights and less passengers – there is no airport that comes remotely close to the level of efficiency of ATL.
@Tim_Dunn…how many Clubs does DL have in ATL? AA has 5 at DFW (one in each Terminal).