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But the need for a well educated Atlanta-based workforce prompted representatives from AirTran Airways, Delta Air Lines Inc. and Hartsfield-Jackson to work with GSU officials to keep the program alive.

Now airport, aviation and airline management courses will be offered out of the Cecil B. Day School of Hospitality in GSU’s J. Mack Robinson College of Business, and students will have the opportunity to learn about Hartsfield-Jackson’s international business development efforts that include securing a direct Delta route between Atlanta and China.

“Our big focus this year is China,” said airport development manager Warren Jones of Hartsfield-Jackson's 2007 projects. Mr. Jones will also be teaching courses on airport and aviation management at Georgia State, drawing from his own experiences to secure new routes and carriers at the airport.

Mr. Jones, who plans to work with Delta and the U.S. Department of Transportation to open an Atlanta-Beijing route by 2008, thinks that a relationship with Georgia State is essential in finding qualified professionals for jobs at the airport.

“There are 56,000 jobs created directly from the airport, and teaching airport management skills helps fill those jobs,” Mr. Jones told GlobalAtlanta.

Debra Cannon, director of the Cecil B. Day School where the program will be housed, agreed that such classes will help business students find a job in Atlanta and throughout the aviation industry.

“When I spoke with the people from Delta and AirTran, they said that they look for graduates with a good background in business, a real understanding of service and a basic knowledge of aviation,” Dr. Cannon said, adding that the program was a good fit for the hospitality school, which is where it originally opened in the 1970s before moving to the Andrew Young school.

“More and more we see airports aligning with hotels to offer package deals to travelers. [Aviation] really is considered a part of the hospitality community,” she said. “If we couldn’t get travelers here, and we didn’t have the world’s busiest airport, our hotels wouldn’t do as well…and vice versa. We really do feed off of one another.”

Dr. Cannon, who recognizes the importance of preparing Georgia State students for international visitors, launched a partnership with a hospitality school in Grenoble, France, last year, and will receive the program’s first exchange student this week.

She is also planning to offer satellite courses in the Georgia World Congress Center that will give students the opportunity to organize international teleconferences.

Mr. Jones will teach two of the four aviation courses that will be offered this spring at Georgia State, in addition to working with Delta to convince the Department of Transportation to grant the airline a direct flight to Beijing.

Delta has been actively making a case for the new route for more than a year, having sent representatives to China last fall to get support from local officials and arguing that the a direct route would have a $400 million impact on the state of Georgia.

The Department of Transportation will consider requests this fall for new routes into China from U.S. air carriers not already flying into the country.

For more information, contact Mr. Jones at (404) 209-2945 ext. 2332 or Warren.Jones@atlanta-airport.com
Contact Dr. Cannon at (404) 651-3672.
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