Airbus A380-800 (A7-APF)

There was some talk about there not being a gate for the Qatar A380. Did they at least give her a water canon salute?

It now seems that Delta parked an A320 on the only A380 gate in Atlanta. Qatar A380 parked at a hardstand and pax disembarked down stairs and shuttled to terminal in busses. Embarrassing!

That would have been a heck of a lot of busses!
Great shot!
By the way it would have been the ground controller that directed the A320 to the gate not Delta.

Was the gate cleared for loading or did it stay at the hard stand?

Yes they did. Our hometown airline had an A320 parked at the only gate that was able to accommodate the A380. I'll post a picture of the water salute.

Roy, Delta has there own tower that does there flight so it was Delta the scheduled there flight on that gate.

It stayed at the hard stand. I left the ramp area after it came in and the passengers were disembarking to the busses. They had a lot of busses out there to get them off.

To be fair to Delta, Qatar had originally scheduled a 777 for this flight and apparently gates are assigned months in advance. It was Qatar that switched aircraft after the gate allocation. However, in the interests of diplomacy I'm sure Delta could have found another spot for that A320 in an airport the size of Hartsfield-Maynard.

Just remembered that Delta was one of the airlines that made a great fuss along with AAL and UAL about the emergence of the three big gulf carriers. So there is probably a little spite operating.

Also Qatar is a Oneworld member, Delta is Skyteam.
Competition raises its ugly head....