Group Petitions Hartsfield-Jackson Airport For Indian Or Middle Eastern Carrier

And if you want to fly directly from Atlanta to India, you’re completely out of luck.

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In fact, Atlanta trails a host of other U.S. cities in terms of International access, including: Boston, Chicago, Dallas, Houston, Los Angeles and New York. Each of those cities offers non-stop service from Dubai-based Emirates.

“If all those cities have those Emirates flights, why not Atlanta?” asks Jerish Augustine. He’s president of the Greater Atlanta Malayalee Association, or GAMA, which represents the local Indian community.

Like many GAMA members, Augustine flies to India every year or two, a process he calls “painful” because of multiple connections, airport changes and long layovers.

“A lot of people from my community [were] telling me, ‘If you can do just one thing, and one thing only, try to get International flights from Atlanta,’” Augustine says.

That’s exactly what Augustine is attempting to do. 

A few weeks ago, GAMA petitioned Hartsfield-Jackson management to bring an Indian or Middle Eastern carrier to Atlanta, citing the growing demand for expanded service here as well as the perceived economic benefit to the region. The petition mentions Qatar Airways, Kuwait Airways, Jet Airways, Ethiad and Emirates as carriers operating at other U.S. airports, but not Hartsfield-Jackson. 

Airport officials welcome the interest, but say establishing a new carrier is a complicated proposition with multiple variables.

Airport spokesman Reese McCraine says Hartsfield-Jackson constantly works with airlines to bring new routes to Atlanta, but in the end, he says it’s up to an airline –not the airport—to make that decision.

“If it were as easy as [just waving] a magic wand and have new passenger service start tomorrow, we’d certainly do it,” says McCraine.

Even so, the airport recently saw success in bringing cargo flights to Atlanta from the Middle East. 

“To get air service and connect Atlanta to some place like the Middle East that has such amazing growth is an amazing feat,” Hartsfield-Jackson general manager Miguel Southwell told an audience last month at a local business conference.

So if Atlanta can attract a carrier for cargo, why can’t it do the same for passengers?

A letter obtained by WABE from Ethiad Airways may point to the answer.

In response to a local customer’s request to establish service, an Ethiad official writes that, “…without a partner that can provide access to points beyond Atlanta, the service is not viable.”

In other words, if Atlanta’s dominate carrier Delta won’t partner up, there’s no deal.

Such a partnership looks like a distant, if not impossible, proposition. 

Delta and other U.S. carriers have challenged continued expansion of Middle Eastern airlines under Open Skies Agreements, claiming those carriers receive government subsidies that give them an unfair advantage.