Trip Report – Visiting Atlanta and its Airports

Stay tuned as later this year a new book on Delta Air Lines will be published, written by myself.

In order to complete some research into the airline, and visit its home base and museum, a trip to Atlanta was hastily arranged at the end of May.

Living in the UK, I had a number of options, but it was proving pretty expensive for a last-minute fare. So I had a look for award flights using my Avios points. I settled on using a combination of British Airways and Aer Lingus, and threw in an interesting flight in the middle for good measure.

Tag along for the ride!

Getting to Atlanta

Living in north east England, I don’t have any hub airports close by, and my local airport doesn’t have an IAG carrier. So on 31^st May I drove an hour north to Newcastle airport to catch the mid-morning British Airways flight down to London Heathrow.

This was operated by Airbus A320 G-EUUB, with the journey taking just over an hour, landing on runway 09L at Heathrow.

I had four hours between flights at Heathrow, so spent some time at the northern end of the main terminal building watching arrivals on the adjacent runway. You can actually get some good shots from here if you’re discrete!

Views of runway 09L arrivals at Heathrow.

My flight to Atlanta was operated today by British Airways Boeing 777-200ER G-YMML, which wears the GREAT Festival of Creativity scheme. I think this is the first time I’ve flown on an aircraft in a special livery like this!

It was already 50 minutes delayed before boarding, and this extended to nearly two hours. But eventually, departing runway 09R, we were on our way, taking a sharp turn just after take-off to face west for our Atlantic crossing.

This particular 777 had an updated interior and I had a decent amount of space. I enjoyed the food on offer, watched a movie and caught up with some work.

Arrival into Atlanta Hartsfield Jackson International, after 8 h 40, was just as the sun was setting.

Arriving into Atlanta, a sign of what was to come greeted us.

Renaissance Concourse Hotel

The view from the balcony of my room on the 9th floor. All five runways and the airport terminal are visible.

The Renaissance Concourse Hotel as seen from the airport terminal.

Amazingly, from walking off the plane to getting in a taxi took less than 30 minutes.

This included collecting baggage and passing through TSA security. I’ve never experienced this being so quick before (apart from the time I pre-cleared security at Dublin!).

Once in a taxi, it was a quick ride from the International Terminal to the Renaissance Concourse Hotel on the northern boundary of this huge airport.

Most spotters know about this place, and I’ll be writing a full report on it soon to go into more detail. Let’s just say it didn’t disappoint!

I’d pre-booked a runway view room. I got one on the 9^th floor with a balcony and I could see everything going on across the five runways and many concourses.

I spent some time taking it in before collapsing into bed.

In and Around Atlanta

The cockpit of the Boeing 747-400 prototype, N661US.

The historic hangar at the Delta Flight Museum.

I’ll go into more detail about this in separate posts which will hopefully give you some inspiration and guidance on spotting around Atlanta.

But, to summarise, aside from many hours sat on that balcony logging and photographing aircraft at Atlanta in the sunshine and catching up on Delta Air Lines’ fleets, I made two specific trips.

First, I headed to the Delta Flight Museum, which is just a 5 minute walk from the hotel – but beware, there are no sidewalks (pavements), so it’s quite difficult to do!

The viewing area at DeKalb-Peachtree airport.

Downwind Restaurant at DeKalb-Peachtree – a great place for food, with views of the action.

This museum charts the history of Delta and its predecessors, and is situated next to their HQ building. As well as lots of information and memorabilia, it also displays a good collection of aircraft. These included historic early piston types, a Douglas DC-3 and DC-7, the ‘Spirit of Delta’ Boeing 767-200, the prototype Lockheed L1011 TriStar and Convair 880 (forward fuselages only), a Boeing 757, Douglas DC-9, and the prototype Boeing 747-400. You can go inside some of them, too.

The next day I made the journey to north Atlanta and visited DeKalb Peachtree airport, which is a really busy general aviation field. It has lots of biz jet movements and resident aircraft, and a dedicated viewing area which make spotting fun and easy!

Flying Delta

A line-up of Boeing 717 tails at Atlanta.

Delta Boeing 717 view from seat 26E.

The other flight I’d booked during my trip was so that I could experience Delta itself.

As one of the last operators of the Boeing 717 in the world, I searched hard to find a way I could fly on this type, and connect to my flight back to Europe. I settled on flying from Atlanta to Washington Dulles.

Doing this let me experience the many concourses in Atlanta’s domestic terminal (this has been the busiest airport in the world for decades).

The flight itself was great. It was operated by N965AT (originally delivered to AirTran Airways). I had pre-booked seat 26E, which is in the second-to-last row and has the best view of the engine and wing. It reminded me of the old days flying DC-9s and MD-80s, and I enjoyed it a lot.

Flying Back Home

Waiting to check in for my Aer Lingus flight, I enjoyed a coffee with a view of some of the gates.

The iconic terminal at Washington Dulles.

Once at Dulles, I had a few hours before my flight back home. This was on Aer Lingus, flying narrowbody across the Atlantic on an Airbus A321neo for the first time.

Interestingly Aer Lingus have two flights in close succession between Dulles and Dublin. I was on the later one, operated by EI-LRC.

During my time in Washington I checked out the top-level of the car parks outside the iconic terminal, which have views of the approach. But today movements were in the opposite direction, so it wasn’t as good.

Once airside, I had decent views of movements, with lots of United and international carriers.

Coasting in over Ireland aboard Aer Lingus A321neo EI-LRC.

The flight across to Dublin left around 9pm, and was a quick 6 h 30, landing around 8am in Dublin. It didn’t feel much different to be on a narrowbody aircraft – an Economy seat is the same whatever the aircraft.

Once in Dublin, I had a couple of hours before boarding my connecting flight back to Newcastle. This was on ATR 72-600 EI-FAT, and necessitated a bus ride to the remote stand where these commuter aircraft park – which is great for logging aircraft on the ground!

The final leg – boarding ATR72-600 EI-FAT to Newcastle.

The flight took an hour, and I dozed for a lot of it thanks to exhaustion!

Summary

This was a work and pleasure trip. It was perfect for researching what I need for the book, and getting lots of pictures.

As a spotter, it was also amazing (and tiring!) to be at such a busy airport with such a good view from the hotel. I logged almost 500 Delta aircraft, and hundreds more of other airlines; and my camera is full of photos.

I’ll be writing up individual parts of this trip to give more information soon, so stay tuned.

Have you ever visited Atlanta? What did you think? Leave a comment below.