If you're one of those who isn't taking sequestration seriously, the general manager of the world's busiest airport says, think again.

"It's not fear mongering," says Lewis Miller, GM of Hartsfield-Jackson Atlanta International Airport.  "It will be real if it goes through."

Sequestration will take effect Friday unless a deal is reached between the White House and House Republicans.  No deal will mean across the board budget cuts for all federal agencies, including the Federal Aviation Administration.

Miller says that means furloughs.

"It would be one day per pay period, or one day every two weeks," Miller tells WSB.  "Really, a ten percent reduction in staffing."

With 2300 flights in and out of Atlanta every day, Miller says that would mean flight delays.

"The furloughs would slow down the air traffic control system," he says.  "They wouldn't let safety get impaired. That's one thing they would never do.  So they would slow the system down."

In a worst case scenario, Miller says, Hartsfield-Jackson would have to shut down one of its runways.

If no deal is reached, the cuts would begin taking effect in 30 days, or in early April.

That timetable, Miller says, is also trouble for the airport.

"That's starting to get to be a busy time," he says.  "International travel starts getting busier.  We also have the Final Four coming to Atlanta, another busy time."

Miller hopes the President and Congress can work something out.  If they cannot, he says, it will cause problems for travelers.

"If it (sequestration) does happen, it will have a significant impact on those people traveling in and out of this airport," he says, "and every airport in the United States."