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Last week I flew an 864-mile roundtrip on the airlines instead of driving. Wish I had driven.

Location, location, and location are the major factors in real estate. For airline travel major factors are hassle, hassle, and hassle, particularly at ATL.

Let it be noted that I think the airport management at ATL does a remarkable job of trying to do the impossible. The airport simply has too much traffic. They just opened a new runway (the original estimated cost was $1.2 billion—wonder what it really cost?). Near as I can tell, the new runway just allows them to make even more people miserable.

My arrival gate was at the south end of T Concourse, my departure gate at the north end of D. In between were so many people it seemed to rival Times Square on New Year’s Eve, except that the crowd at Times Square is happy. My departure gate was changed not once, but two times. Then the flight was delayed. (By the way, my inbound flight to ATL was held on the ground at HSV before takeoff because of “heavy traffic in Atlanta”.)

I have avoided ATL for years just because any glitch at any airport in the country seems to cause big time, heavy-duty delays at ATL. On this trip there were no glitches elsewhere, but ATL, having reached new levels, no longer needs outside help to make thousands of people miserable routinely.

I’m not going back unless it is absolutely, positively necessary.

I’ve written it before, now I believe it more’n ever: Atlanta desperately needs a second airport. Not another runway, but an additional airport.

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