As Hartsfield-Jackson International Airport debuts its new $1.4 billion international terminal, critics will be decrying it as a boondoggle, saying it cost twice original projections, has fewer gates than originally planned and wasn’t necessary in the first place. They also say it is a monument to political patronage.

“The companies and contractors who would benefit from the building of this terminal gave large campaign contributions,” said Common Cause Executive Director William Perry.

He and former investigative reporter and current News/Talk WSB talk show Dale Cardwell will tell reporters at a 10:00 a.m. news conference that the old international terminal, Concourse E, only operates at a fraction of its capacity and that the international traffic hardly warrants a facility worth three times the city’s annual budget.

“They never approach gate capacity for international traffic,” said Cardwell, who spoke alongside Perry in an exclusive interview to News/Talk WSB.

So if Concourse E never operated at even half of capacity, why build a new international terminal?

“Because the airport had money to spend and couldn’t build more domestic gates,” Cardwell said, citing an agreement between Atlanta’s airport and its hometown airline, Delta.

Cardwell claims Delta wanted to maintain a lock on domestic gates to keep competitors from using them to fly duplicate routes at lower rates. With money to burn, he said, the airport had no choice but to spend it on international gates.

Who benefited?

Perry said the airport has long been a cash cow for city leaders looking for big campaign contributions.

Former Mayor Shirley Franklin, who ran virtually unopposed in 2005, yet amassed a $2.2 million campaign war chest. Of that money, approximately $644,000 – 35-percent – came from contractors bidding or working on the new international terminal, Perry said.

Franklin could not be reached for comment.

Perry also pointed to the current controversy surrounding bids for the airport’s huge concessions contract, saying Mayor Kasim Reed has garnered approximately $180,000 in contributions from bidders – some of whom were closely associated with his bid for election.

City officials acknowledge the mayor received contributions from would-be concessionaires at the airport, but say, in the face of a total campaign budget amounting to approximately $3 million, they represent an amount that is little more than a “rounding error.”