Hartsfield-Jackson Again "World's Busiest" Airport

By Jim Burress

Atlanta, GA – Along with that designation comes a lot of money to the region and to the state. Airport officials say Hartsfield-Jackson is the largest single employer in Georgia, and last year boast an economic impact of $23.5-billion.

Even so, airport spokeswoman Katena Carvajales says the struggling economy and cutbacks in airline capacity are evident in the airport's 2009 volume.

"According to the FAA Air Traffic Activity Data System, we had 970,258 operations for 2009," said Carvajales. "That's a slight decrease from 2008 it's about a .8% decrease."

With that many planes, travelers through Atlanta's airport were bound to experience delays. And they did. According to the U.S. Bureau of Transportation Statistics January numbers, the airport ranked 16th in the nation for on-time performance. That's better than the 24th ranking it achieved a year earlier.