Atlanta airport planning series of upgrades

ATLANTA — Atlanta’s airport is aiming to add staff and make upgrades so it can handle the crowds of travelers expected for big events such as the upcoming Super Bowl.

The world’s busiest airport has asked city officials for approval to add 28 positions to its staff, The Atlanta Journal-Constitution reported.

The employees would handle more Uber and Lyft vehicles at the airport, manage traffic around construction, and bolster its command center to respond to issues, airport officials said.

Hartsfield-Jackson Atlanta International Airport also plans to bolster the cellular signal in outdoor areas including parking decks, jet bridges, taxiways and ramp areas by expanding its digital antenna system. Some travelers have had problems getting a cellular signal when getting picked up by Uber or Lyft at the airport, the Atlanta newspaper reported.

The airport also plans to relocate the Terminal North pick-up area for Uber and Lyft to a location closer to the terminal later this year.

“The new location is going to be markedly closer and easy to navigate,” airport General Manager Roosevelt Council said recently at a budget briefing for Atlanta’s city council.

To better manage ground transportation, security, traffic and other areas, the airport is seeking approval for a budget that includes 12 more positions for the vehicle-for-hire department and six more positions in ground transportation.

Ongoing construction is “having an effect on our ability to manage traffic flow,” Council said. “We need to have a little bit more personnel to manage that.”

Major events such as the Super Bowl will “really put some pressure, in addition to construction on those curbsides, [to] be able to keep those passengers moving and get them onto planes,” he said.

Airport officials also want to add positions at its Centralized Command & Control Center, the newspaper reported.

The command center allows the airport “to respond quickly to any event that happens around the airport,” Council said. “That’s kind of a 24-hour situation for us.”