AIRPORT HAS DIAGRAM FOR PANDEMIC RECOVERY

Hartsfield-Jackson officials have diagrammed potential trajectories for the world’s busiest airport’s recovery from the pandemic. Among the shapes it could take: a W, a square root, a Nike swoosh or an L.

The airport is formulating its budget for the next fiscal year and basing its projections on a slow 5% climb in passenger counts monthly. Travel was down more than 95% at the lowest point, in April.

Meanwhile, a decline in the national unemployment rate raised hopes Friday among some analysts for a rapid V-shaped recovery of the economy.

Airlines are among the hardest-hit sectors of the coronavirus pandemic, as people and businesses remain concerned about the risks of traveling.

Some officials expect it could take two to five years for a full recovery of the airline industry.

Based on those latest projections, the airport now projects about $78.4 million in parking revenue and $50.9 million in concessions revenue in the next fiscal year starting July 2020, down from normal collections of more than $147 million and more than $120 million, respectively.

“Georgia depends on our airport tremendously,” said Atlanta City Council member Marci Collier Overstreet. “This is just a really hard hit.”

During a budget briefing, airport officials showed a slide with four different paths recovery might take.

“One scenario that we are starting to look at a little bit more closely is what is referred to as the square root,” said airport Chief Financial Officer Greg Richardson. That would bring passenger growth to a “new normal ... then it would grow at a normal rate moving forward.”

While some have forecast a slow L-shaped recovery, Delta Air Lines CEO Ed Bastian said this week: “I don’t like the letter L because it never picks up again . ... I’ve been more in the camp of the Nike swoosh.”

Richardson said another potential scenario is the W — in which “we would see a more immediate return of passengers,” followed by another sharp decline due to a resurgence of the virus and restrictions in the fall or winter. “And then all of a sudden we would be falling back.”

“We don’t want to lose sight of the impact that those scenarios could have on us,” he said.

Hartsfield-Jackson has closed Concourses B, E and parts of Concourses T and C. But a gradual recovery has begun, and the airport’s plan for