Atlanta Offers 20-Year Lease To Delta

Delta Airlines receives an offer of a 20-year lease from the City Council of Atlanta.

Delta Airlines will be sticking around for a while at the airport of Atlanta as it has offered it a lease of 20 years. The air carrier has agreed upon this contract with the city and will be continuing its flight operations at the Hartsfield-Jackson International Airport. A Councilman, C.T. Martin, announced the renewal for this proposal on Monday at the end of the first meeting of this month.

The air travelling company already has its headquarters situated in Atlanta which will stay there for at least the next decades according to this new contract. The airline has a strong presence in the area operating 1000 departures in one day and is the biggest airline hub. There are some changes in the contract which are in favor of the airport. The headquarters of the company is just 15 miles away from the airport of Atlanta.

This time Delta airlines has actually agreed on providing aid and help with the costs of public safety and reviewed the plans of the general manager to spend huge sums of money on major capital projects. The air carrier is not supportive of everything that the city says, only a few reasonable things. Most of the time airports manage to get profits via a fees paid to it by airlines and funds provided by the FAA.

The US air carrier is currently working under a contract with the city that will be expiring in September 2017 while the new lease is going to expire in 2036, June not just this but also the option to extend the contract for ten more years if it reaches the end of its expiry date.

This deal comes as the chief executive of the air traveling company, Richard Anderson has managed to build good relationships with the Mayor of Atlanta, Kasim Reed, but he is going to retire on May 2 with the next meeting for the airports with the city Council to be held on 27 of this month. Delta will pay landing fees and lease rates to the airport according to the contract. A sixth runway will be added to the airport extending it to Concourse F. This will lead to the relocation of the cargo facilities from north of the airport to the south between the runways. 

This lease contract is going to limit the airline competition and that will remain unaffected mostly because the airport will have a certain amount of control over the gates, if one company overuses them it can be taken back by the airport and offer it to another airline instead.