The airport is located 10 mi (16 km; 8.7 nmi) south of the Downtown Atlanta district.

[4][5] The airport covers 4,700 acres (7.3 sq mi; 19 km2) of land and has five parallel runways which are aligned in an east–west direction.

[12] Additionally, Hartsfield–Jackson is the home of Delta's Technical Operations Center, which is the airline's primary maintenance, repair and overhaul arm.

The airport's domestic terminal is served by MARTA's Red and Gold rail lines.

Hartsfield–Jackson began with a five-year, rent-free lease on 287 acres (116 ha) that was an abandoned auto racetrack named The Atlanta Speedway.

The lease was signed on April 16, 1925, by Mayor Walter Sims, who committed the city to develop it into an airfield.

[21] Atlanta was a busy airport from its inception, and by the end of 1930, it was third behind New York City and Chicago for regular daily flights with sixteen arriving and departing.

[23] The March 1939 Official Aviation Guide shows fourteen weekday airline departures: ten Eastern and four Delta.

The Air Force used the airport primarily to service many types of transient combat aircraft.

During World War II, the airport doubled in size and set a record of 1,700 takeoffs and landings in a single day, making it the nation's busiest in terms of flight operation.

[23] In 1942, Candler Field was renamed Atlanta Municipal Airport and by 1948, more than one million passengers passed through a war surplus hangar that served as a terminal building.

[25] Delta and Eastern had extensive networks from ATL, though Atlanta had no nonstop flights beyond Texas, St. Louis, and Chicago until 1961.

The complex was designed by Stevens & Wilkinson, Smith Hinchman & Grylls, and Minority Airport Architects & Planners.

The massive project, which involved putting fill dirt eleven stories high in some places, destroyed some surrounding neighborhoods and dramatically changed the scenery of Flat Rock Cemetery and Hart Cemetery, both on the airport property.

The council planned to drop Hartsfield's name from the airport, but public outcry (occurring coincidentally during a debate over the state's flag) prevented this.

[48] In 1978, after airline deregulation, United no longer served Atlanta, while Southern successor Republic was the airport's third-largest carrier.

[53] After Eastern ceased operation, Northwest Airlines (the successor of Republic) briefly expressed interest in establishing an Atlanta hub but ultimately decided against it.

[62] AirTran was fully absorbed into Southwest in 2014, continuing to operate Atlanta as a focus city and remaining the airport's second-largest carrier.

In March 2019, WestJet began offering direct flights to Calgary, and in 2023, the airline started non-stop service to Vancouver and Winnipeg.

Copa Airlines became the first Latin American carrier to serve the airport in December 2021 with direct flights to Panama City.

Scandinavian Airlines started service to Atlanta in June 2024 with direct flights from Copenhagen.

Etihad Airways will start nonstop service to Atlanta on July 2, 2025 with direct flights to Abu Dhabi.

[66] A second underground walkway connecting the north sides of Concourses B and C once existed for Eastern Air Lines.

Hartsfield–Jackson has its own train station on the city's rapid transit system, MARTA, served by the Red and Gold lines.

The above-ground station is inside the main building, between the north and south domestic terminals on the west end.

[72] Several local shared-ride shuttle services are readily available at Atlanta Airport, offering diverse options for travelers seeking convenient transportation.

The complex features 9,900 parking spaces split between two four-story parking decks that together cover 2.8 million square feet (260,000 m2), a 137,000-square-foot (12,700 m2) customer service center, and a maintenance center featuring 140 gas pumps and 30 wash bays equipped with a water recovery system.

[79] Before its merger with ExpressJet, Atlantic Southeast Airlines was headquartered in the hangar, then named the A-Tech Center.

[80] In December 2007, the airline announced it was moving its headquarters into the facility, previously named the "North Hangar."

The Atlanta City Council and Mayor of Atlanta Shirley Franklin approved the new 25-year ASA lease, which also gave the airline new hangar space to work on 15 to 25 aircraft in overnight maintenance; previously, its aircraft were serviced at Concourse C. The airport property division stated that the hangar was built in the 1960s and renovated in the 1970s.