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A video of a man who "raced through America's biggest airport" in seconds to catch his connecting flight has gone viral on TikTok.
The clip was posted by Phil Stringer (@phil.stringer) and has garnered 3.5 million views since it was posted in late April.
The footage was captured at Hartsfield-Jackson Atlanta International Airport in Atlanta, which was ranked as the world's busiest airport in 2023 based on total passenger traffic, according to the Airports Council International.
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A note overlaid on the clip says: "BAD NEWS: you land in the largest airport in the US 7 minutes before the doors close on your next flight..."
The footage shows a person rolling a suitcase while heading out of a walkway. The camera then swiftly turns right, with a sign for Gate C42 seen just steps ahead. The note continues: "GOOD NEWS: you somehow land at gate C41 and you depart from C42..."
A caption shared with the post says: "Just raced through America's biggest airport (for 5 seconds) and made my connecting flight! Landed at gate C41 and my next flight was at C42."
"Talk about luck! Next stop: buying a lottery ticket!" the poster added in the caption.
The passenger in the clip was lucky indeed. Jet-setters are bound to face delays—which can affect their chances of catching any connecting flights—and air travel shows no signs of slowing down in the post-pandemic era.
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Total passenger demand in April was up by 11 percent, compared with April 2023, the International Air Transport Association (IATA) reported in May. In November 2023, global air traffic was reported to be at 99.1 percent of November 2019 (pre-pandemic) levels, according to an IATA report in January.
The viral post comes as travel is set to hit record highs in 2024. Global tourism spending is expected to reach $2 trillion, according to a December 2023 survey by Euromonitor International, a market research company.
'The Luckiest Thing Ever'
TikTok viewers were impressed by the passenger's luck, and several shared their stories of similar close calls with connecting flights.
User @blueaz7 wrote: "That's the luckiest thing ever! My connection is always in a different wing of the city."
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"What are the odds," said msbrown028, while krishendrix_ wrote: "That happened to me today!!"
Alicia. wrote: "I had a 30 min layover because of a delayed flight and was on opposite ends. I made it just in time."
Daniel Rivera3790 said: "My flight was delayed and my layover time was shrunk to 2 minutes. My gate was the one I exited the plane through."
YaffiTheScientist wrote: "One time I stayed on the plane while everyone else got off because the next stop was my destination. I was already on the flight."
Newsweek has contacted the original poster for comment via TikTok. The video has not been independently verified.
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