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Which city in the South has the best airport? (in your opinion)

soverbey

By soverbey
in USA South

Best Airport?  

119 members have voted

  1. 1. Memphis

    • Jackson, MS
      2
    • New Orleans
      3
    • Birmingham
      3
    • Atlanta
      38
    • Miami
      2
    • Orlando
      22
    • Tampa
      8
    • Jacksonville
      1
    • Charlotte
      24
    • Nashville
      16

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monsoon Gigalopolis

monsoon

Posted
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I have flown into most of these airports as a business traveler, and I its been my experience that Atlanta is the best designed and does not have any equal in this area. Even though it is the 1st or 2nd busiest in the world, it handles the business so well it isn't an issue. The worst airports I have been in in the South, though not in the list are in Dallas & Houston. They are poorly designed IMO.

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hustle4alivin Unincorporated Area

hustle4alivin

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I've been to quite a few of those airports on the list, and Tampa wins hands down with Orlando being a close second, in terms of layout and ease of use and efficiency of their facilities.

When you drive into Tampa Airport, the main short-term parking is located right on top of the Terminal. The terminals are color coded ('Red' and 'Blue') rather than by letter, number or direction. Elevators swoop you right down into the main terminal, and the Arrivals, Tickets, and Departure levels are separate from each other, which cuts down on intermingling foot traffic in the Landside Terminal (a MAJOR pet peeve of mine at say, Atlanta Airport). And instead of a long walk down a concourse, a shuttle train takes you to your Terminal, and there is minimal walking to your gate. Also, the security checkpoint is in each Concourse, rather than in the terminal itself. Orlando, on the other hand has the security checkpoints in the terminal.

Also, TIA's signage is easy to read, making the airport easy to navigate around in.

OIA beats TIA in terms of Restaurants and shopping, but it is a far busier Airport than TIA. Parking is a bit more of a pain, but you have more options here than you do at TIA.

Atlanta has a great layout if your changing planes, but it is hell if your leaving from Atlanta itself, rather than just changing through. One security checkpoint for six concourses! Also, the Concourses are narrow and crowded. Whoever designed the airport really should have considered making the councourses wider to install moving sidewalks.

Why aren't Dallas, Houston, Memphis or Raleigh on here?

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hustle4alivin Unincorporated Area

hustle4alivin

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I think the undisputed leader is Atlanta. Isn't it one of the busiest airports in the nation, after La Guardia, O Hare, and LA?

Atlanta is THE busiest airport in the nation in both number of passengers (since 1998) and arrivals/departures 1999-2000 and 2005-present). It should be interesting how ATL ranks if Delta goes out of business in the next few years due to their financial problems.

LAX is the busiest airport in the country in terms of people flying to their final destination (rather than just changing planes).

Memphis is the busiest airport in terms of Cargo traffic.

Who in their right mind would vote Jackson? Or Birmingham? Or whatever?

People From there :thumbsup:

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Plasticman Hamlet

Plasticman

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The question is best airport, not busiest. While Hartsfield is fairly well layed out, they have one of the higher delay rates for major airports, and don't even get me started on customer service, horrible!

Couldn't disagree more. Hartsfield has every other MAJOR airport I've flown out of beaten badly, especially in how modern it is and the transit system used to get around. Even with the "extra" security check, I made it competely across the airport in just a few minutes in time for my flight. Delays are a fact of life. The busier you are, the more delays. I haven't had any delay at Atlanta but had a major one at O'hare.

Now if you want to get in and out quickly, the best I've seen is Akron, Canton in Ohio. If you ever fly to Cleveland, don't go there. Go to Akron/Canton airport. You'll be out in minutes.

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wrldcoupe4 Metropolitan Area

wrldcoupe4

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I'd say given its recent undergoing expansion and the attraction of 2 lowcost carriers that significantly lowered prices, Richmond is one of the most improved southern airports... Growth over the past year was phenomenal and that was before Jet Blue was in town. Look for serious growth coming from RIC in the coming years.

I don't think it's the best though. Dulles is nice if yall consider it part of the south; I'm sure Atlanta probably takes the cake here.

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Aporkalypse City

Aporkalypse

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I prefer DFW To Atlanta and Orlando, in that order. The widely separated terminals and parking arrangements at DFW make it easier to get around and the underground tram is better than the above-ground thing in Atlanta. Orlando is nice but man the bottlenecks there are awful. They really needed completely separate terminals with separate parking and entrances as well as distinct security checkpoints.

I like Charlotte's airport but I can't say much about it as I only connected there.

For the record, ATL is the world's busiest airport. O'Hare is #2, LAX #5, and DFW #6. Orlando is #21.

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Eastwestrob Hamlet

Eastwestrob

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Huh? Atlanta has an underground subway between the concourses. Its not above ground and it is much faster and higher capacity than the one in DFW.

Yes and If I remember right the DFW tram is actually above ground about 30 feet in the air. I remember looking down on the tops of the planes.

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dimebag1980 Metropolis

dimebag1980

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Yes and If I remember right the DFW tram is actually above ground about 30 feet in the air. I remember looking down on the tops of the planes.

DFW is also cut in half by International Parkway, which creates a need for expensive overpasses. That's just one of the reasons that I hate the design of that airport.

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satalac Burg

satalac

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gotta go with hartsfield. to be able to handle the amount that it does and still run as smoothly as it does is simply amazing. flying to hawaii i had to fly from nashville to atlanta, to lax. atlanta was definatly the easiest to get around conpared to those 3 (not that nashville is all that hard, we only have 4 concourses. plus it's pretty easy because ticket and concourse is on level 3, baggage is on level 2 and ground travel is on level 1.)

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hustle4alivin Unincorporated Area

hustle4alivin

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DFW is also cut in half by International Parkway, which creates a need for expensive overpasses. That's just one of the reasons that I hate the design of that airport.

When I lived in California and visited family in Mississippi, I became all too familiar with this airport, and not in a good way either. DFW was designed and built right before the "Hub and Spoke" operations that we see today. The reason why it has those huge semi-circular terminals and all those roads and overpasses is because it was made purposely for you to drive right to the ticket counter, and walk directly to your gate in the shortest time possible. Kansas City has a similar design, but they messed up by having multiple security checkpoints for two or three gates each. That's why it's never made it as a major hub airport (too much time to get from one gate to another with having to cross security checkpoints), but DFW did. However, when DFW became a hub airport for American and Delta in the 80's, the design became obsolete because of the long distances required to get from one gate to another (although DFW has adapted with the new train system. The old one-way underground train SUUUCKED) The terminals are even narrower than the ones in Atlanta (the gates are only on one side), so it feels even more crowded than Atlanta's airport.

When the present terminal opened in Atlanta, it was designed specifically for hub-and spoke operations. As many of you southerners know, whether you go to heaven or hell, you have to change planes in Atlanta first. The layout works great for this. That is why just about every airport terminal designed in the last 20 years for hubs has copied Atlanta's design, not Dallas (Denver Airport, and the United Terminal at O'Hare are the best examples of this.)

Just my .02

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monsoon Gigalopolis

monsoon

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When the present terminal opened in Atlanta, it was designed specifically for hub-and spoke operations. As many of you southerners know, whether you go to heaven or hell, you have to change planes in Atlanta first.

That was true 25 years ago when Eastern Airlines dominated flying in the Southeast, but today that is no longer the case. You really only need to go through Atlanta if you are on Delta. I actually haven't flown through Atlanta in years because mainly I fly on USAir, Continental and United.

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