Delta renews Atlanta lease agreement

Kasim Reed, mayor of the City of Atlanta, and Richard Anderson, CEO of Delta Air Lines, have inked a 20-year Airport Use and Lease Agreement.
The new lease, which goes into effect on 1 July, will keep Delta’s corporate headquarters in Atlanta until at least 2036. It replaces the previous agreement which went into effect in 1980 and was then extended in 2009.
 “Today’s lease signing with Delta Air Lines is a landmark agreement and will ensure the airport’s continued trajectory as the region’s dominant economic generator for decades to come,” remarked Miguel Southwell, aviation general manager at Hartsfield-Jackson Atlanta International Airport.
“As part of the agreement, we have maintained our status as one of the most cost competitive airports in the country, kept our rates low for all airline carriers and put in place a forward-looking $6 billion capital improvement plan.”
According to a statement from the gateway, confirming this new agreement with Delta will allow Hartsfield-Jackson Atlanta to go ahead with that capital expansion programme, money that will be spent on improvements including the construction of a sixth runway and five additional gates at Concourse T, as well as a new international concourse.
Delta is the City of Atlanta’s largest employer and a key fixture at Atlanta Hartsfield-Jackson, the world’s busiest airport for passenger traffic. According to Anderson: “Today’s signing of the 20-year agreement provides the foundation for the next 20 years of investment so Atlanta remains the leading airport in the world.”
Anderson is retiring as Delta’s CEO on 2 May, instead taking on the role of executive chairman of Delta’s board of directors. Ed Bastian, currently Delta president, will become the carrier’s CEO that same day.
And Reed observed: “The City of Atlanta and Delta Air Lines have a special partnership because together, we have been more successful than we could have been on our own.
“Hartsfield-Jackson is the world’s busiest and most efficient passenger airport, and Delta is one of the world’s largest and well-respected airlines,” he noted.