Over the next few months Georgian’s will be bombarded by more and more and worse and worse politically driven ads for the open Senate seat and the Governor’s race. We all know those players so this column is about the issue most critical to Georgia’s future, transportation.
In the last fifty years Georgia has grown into the capital of the south in a multitude of areas. Economic development across multiple states is due in part to Georgia’s Hartsfield-Jackson Airport and the Port of Savannah.
All one has to do to understand the impact of Hartsfield-Jackson International Airport is to travel during the evening hours. I fly frequently and no matter where I fly from to get home one thing is clear, Hartsfield- Jackson never sleeps and almost all other airports are in some state of comparative napping. Not only are we fortunate enough to be the busiest airport on the planet but we are also the benefactors of the $32.5 billion dollar economic impact that it generates. Every day 2500 planes take off or land at Hartsfield. The take-offs and landings are carrying over 250,000 people to their next destination along with 54,000 metric tons of cargo and 60,000 metric tons of mail each month. The wages associated directly with the airport are estimated at over $4 billion annually and another $10 billion related to, but not at the airport itself.
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