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Originally Posted by Rail Claimore
It's a valid argument. If you look at a population-distribution map of the entire United States, you'll probably notice that ATL is near the center of population for the entire US population that's east of I-35. It's somewhat conveniently halfway between Chicago and Miami, and it's also roughly halfway between the Northeast and Texas/Gulf Coast. Throw in all the international traffic to Europe, Africa, and Latin America and you get the picture.
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I have connected through Atlanta twice on International flights. I noticed tons of Europeans connecting to other flights at ATL to take them to Disney World and the the like.
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Originally Posted by The Urban Politician
Does Chicago really need to have "the busiest airport in the world" any more? Is that a necessary key to its economic future?
What's wrong with having a really busy, huge, international and national airport with many links around the world without necessarily being #1 or #2? To me this seems to be more about bragging rights than anything else.
I have yet to be given a valid reason why being the biggest and busiest is really that important.
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It really doesn't anymore. China will soon have the world's busiest airports, with the rapid urbanization and rising middle class in that country its only inevitable that air travel will continue to grow. Add in the diaspora that returns home for Chinese New Year (the largest annual migration in the world) and we have passenger numbers that will be hard to beat.
Just make ORD as convenient to the rest of the world as possible, that is what really matters.
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