Proper Airports

In large cities small airports dominate the corporate aviation skyscape. That’s because big airports really cater to commercial carriers.“At the largest US hubs, general aviation is always a single percentage user,” says NBAA’s Dan Hubbard.“Because the airline presence is so pronounced that general aviation aircraft have every incentive to use smaller and secondary airports.”

These“pure”business and general aviation airports are located in or near major cities with lots of commercial airline service at major airports. Hartsfield-Jackson Atlanta International, the world’s busiest airport, is a classic case-in-point.

Business jets favor DeKalb-Peachtree Airport (PDK), just northeast of town and a 15 minute drive from upscale Midtown and Buckhead. After ATL, PDK is the state of Georgia’s second-busiest airport. Then on the west side of town lies Fulton County Airport (FTY), known to locals as Charlie Brown Field.

However some big city airports coexist nicely with general aviation, especially the turbine-powered jet variety. One of them is

Star Alliance has launched a new Connection Service to assist customers arriving at Chicago O’Hare risk of missing a connection.

before connecting. In those cases, connecting passengers are eligible to use the Express Connection lane to get through customs and immigration quicker. Checked bags that need to be rechecked are specially tagged so they are handled faster. Similar services are set to roll out to 11 airports around the world.

For details visit staralliance.com. Dallas Love Field. Located a mere six miles north of downtown Dallas, DAL is favored by commercial and bizjet fliers alike.

Commercially, Southwest Airlines flat out dominates DAL. But because commercial traffic at DAL has effectively been capped by an agreement limiting the number of gates at the commercial terminal, Love Field-bound travelers aboard business aircraft aren’t beset by the sort of local air traffic delays that impact other airports of its size and city-center proximity.