A dusty, old, grey cap sits behind a glass frame with other mementos from the civil war. A glass window to the right separates employees going down an escalator to clock into work. There is an electronic store filled with the newest beats and other devices. There is no one inside but who goes to the airport for high priced beats. No one. There is a line of people stretching around a tall clock that resides in the middle of dining plaza which is in the domestic terminal. There are twice as many black chairs for passengers to sit in as they wait for their flight. There are families with little kids who push carriages around and young couples with light luggage. The families ignore the smell of waffles drizzled in butter pecan syrup from IHOP and fried, greasy chicken from Popeyes. One family with a little boy about four and a girl around seven stop at IHOP so that they can eat. They probably came two hours early for their flight and figured they had all the time in the world. The little boy argues briefly with his mom about wanting to feed himself. The mom gives up and begs him not to make a mess. Surprisingly, he does not. The kids gasp at seeing a lab service dog while their parents talk about uncle Bobby and his eccentric girlfriend. A casual family eating a casual breakfast. The dad reaches for the bill and takes out three twenty dollar bills. As the mom helps the kids gather up their luggage.
“Bill, tell me we don’t have to wait in this line?” The mom says with a firm face.
“We have an hour and a half. We will make our flight. Don’t worry.”
“Ugh, Bill. What if Henry needs his inhaler. I didn’t pack it because this was supposed to be a fast flight.” Brown, white, tan, dark skin – they all blend together as passengers wait in line to go through the security check and onto there designated gates at different concourses. At the airport, there is no one culture. This is where all cultures come to travel to their destination and the culture barrier of language is ignored. One particular old, black man is quite antsy as a woman gets out of line to speak to one of the employees.
“No skipping.” The man says.
“I wasn’t skipping. I was asking a question.” The black woman replies.
The line finally moves up a little inch-by-inch as family members who were sitting down join their families in the front.
“Please be patient folks. The line is moving as fast as possible. If you could have your tickets out that would be a great help.”
On any other day of the week, the Atlanta airport is busy and packed with people coming from the snow-covered state of Rhode Island or from the mountain tops of South Korea to many other places but the Super Bowl is one of the busiest times of the year causing airport congestion to occur. The airport is huge it’s like arriving at Six Flags for the first time. There are many people with their eyes bugging out, and mouth wide open. The airport has a beautiful art collection which has a broad history of Atlanta. One is a digital picture of downtown, Atlanta. There are several dining options like Popeyes, Dunkin Donuts, IHOP, Five Guys, Starbucks and so much more. Bright, shining lights greet you all around with directions in white above you. There are seven concourses in all A, B, C, D, E, F, and T.
That’s the calm before the storm. What started out as a peaceful flight has now taken a drastic turn as families and their pets must wait longer and longer until boarding their flights. If the airport is usually busy throughout the year it is a catastrophe during the Super Bowl. One of the Hartsfield-Jackson Airports busiest time of the year is the Super Bowl. Delta is the official airline of the Atlanta Super Bowl Host Committee and were many enthusiastic football fans come from around the United States to come to Atlanta. The airport has put in all the stops for the game with football imagery and sound effects in all seven concourses with floor graphics and posters. Customers can also shop for football items from balls, hats, jackets, luggage sporting the Super Bowl logo.
Teams, the network, league and tens of thousands of fans are coming to fly through from Atlanta to the Big Game. It’s no wonder Airport congestion is at its highest during this time of year. Airport Congestion is the underdog of societal issues. Airport congestion is when airports are too packed with passengers and cargo and have delays in flights. So the cycle of congestion continues and continues building up more and more. This is a huge issue that not only affects the passengers, the employees but the economy as well. “Further, weight-related per-flight charges result in under-investment, whereas marginal cost pricing results in over-investment. Additionally, movement-related per-flight charges lead private airports to overinvest, whereas weight-related per-flight charges lead them to either over- or underinvestment” (Lin 2). Planes have to take into account how much luggage a flight will be carrying and how long the plane will be in the air. Airplane companies don’t want to pay too much but risk not paying enough for flights. When airports are busy but are unable to expand the solution is higher airport charges but economic regulation does not allow this. That means airplane tickets have to increase instead which upsets passengers and the economy.
When visiting family members for spring break college students don’t want to worry about budgeting for a round trip but if airplane congestion keeps on occurring they will. People will have to pay more for flights because the airline companies have to pay more. When the nurse in Wisconsin calls telling you your grandmother is sick, you do not want to be trapped in an airport because your flight can’t take off yet. Airport congestion as mentioned before is a big societal issue but it is also a global issue as well.
Countries around the world face airport congestion in China, Japan France and so many more. This little issue can turn into anyone’s nightmare. Airport congestion is something no mother wants to sit through when her son needs a kidney donation in another state. Airport congestion is something an old married couple can’t even begin to comprehend when taking a trip to Italy for their anniversary. But airport congestion happens and when it does it is no easy fix. Planes are held up, people miss their flights, lives are at risks and yelling at the manager is the only solution for temporarily calming a passenger.
Works Cited
Lin, Ming Hsin. “Airport Congestion and Capacity When Carriers Are Asymmetric.” International
Journal of Industrial Organization, vol. 62, Jan. 2019, pp. 273–290. EBSCOhost,
doi:10.1016/j.ijindorg.2018.07.006.