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Atlanta airport officials address power upgrades, emergency response

They outlined steps taken to ensure a power blackout does not happen again.
Credit: WXIA-TV

Officials with Atlanta's Harsfield-Jackson Airport and partners Atlanta Airlines Terminal Company and Georgia Power gave a briefing Friday morning about improvements to the airport's power systems, procedures and response protocols.

This comes one year after a near 12-hour blackout at the airport on Dec. 17, 2017. 30,000 passengers were stranded and hundreds of domestic and international flights were canceled.

"That was a rough day for passengers, said Tom Nissalke, assistant general manager of planning and development for Hartsfield. "But today we are here to focus on what we've done recently, and focus on the future."

RELATED: Generators, cameras part of Atlanta airport's plan to prevent another blackout

He assured that passengers will still have access to wifi in the event of another airport blackout. 

The partners group said it focused on three major tasks: improving passenger deplaning protocol, passenger mobility in concourses and improving early incident detection.

Bentina Terry, senior vice president of Georgia Power, said that it has entered into a "permanent" agreement with the Atlanta Airlines Terminal Company (AATC) to ensure all power needs are met. 

"We will help operate, maintain and install components and work with AATC to ensure it has all its power needs met," Terry said. 

Over 150 Georgia Power employees have been working on the airport's power circuits, poles and transformers and installed new switches to improve power capabilities. 

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