# Chicago needs more airport capacity(?!?)



## John Bredin (Sep 18, 2008)

Chicago will need a third airport, says FAA head. :blink:

Is this guy in the same world as the rest of us, where airlines are slashing flights?!


----------



## MrFSS (Sep 18, 2008)

John Bredin said:


> Chicago will need a third airport, says FAA head. :blink:
> Is this guy in the same world as the rest of us, where airlines are slashing flights?!


They are buying up land near ORD to put in additional runways(s) right now. Many residents fighting it. Will be interesting.


----------



## Joel N. Weber II (Sep 18, 2008)

John Bredin said:


> Chicago will need a third airport, says FAA head. :blink:
> Is this guy in the same world as the rest of us, where airlines are slashing flights?!


This says that airport has 2625 operations a day.

I don't think demand for travel is going down much, and I haven't heard about any significant plans to add more train capacity in that part of the country...


----------



## Joel N. Weber II (Sep 21, 2008)

Why is the FAA so concerned about a city that has a history of destroying airports? Couldn't some of the load have been handled by Meigs Field?


----------



## saxman (Sep 23, 2008)

Joel N. Weber II said:


> Why is the FAA so concerned about a city that has a history of destroying airports? Couldn't some of the load have been handled by Meigs Field?


Blame the Mayor for that one. A truly great airport was Meigs Field right next to downtown. It was great for business people to be able to fly in, go to their meeting and fly out again. But Mayor Daley decided to bulldoze it to make room for more green.

As far as flight demand, its not going to go down. These cutbacks are only temporary, and once the economy takes a turn for the better, so will aviation. O'Hare is doing the right thing by realigning its runways to be parallel, making for a much more efficient operation. Keep in mind they will be decommisioning some runways as well. It will soon look like DFW's layout, just tilted onto the side. They also need a terminal facelift too. New York airports desparately needs work too. If a new airport were built there, it probably have to be built in the bay. I'm not even too fond of that idea. My idea is to make JFK just for international and transcon traffic and LGA for domestic, and have a highspeed tram or train connecting the two for passengers making connections


----------



## Joel N. Weber II (Sep 23, 2008)

I'm not sure about New York City, but Chicago has certainly tended to be a hub; is there some good reason not to move that hub to some other city?


----------



## PRR 60 (Sep 24, 2008)

Joel N. Weber II said:


> I'm not sure about New York City, but Chicago has certainly tended to be a hub; is there some good reason not to move that hub to some other city?


Chicago is uniquely qualified to be a hub. It is a huge origin and destination market unto itself and is centrally located geographically. That is the ideal combination for a hub operation. For those reasons, Chicago (ORD and MDW) serves as a hub for three airlines: United and American at ORD and Southwest at MDW. Yeah, I know. Southwest does not have a hub and spoke operational philosophy. But MDW sure seems like a hub for WN. There are lots of WN planes coming in and lots of WN planes going out and lots of passengers walking between flights. If it looks like a hub, and feels like a hub: it's a hub.


----------



## Joel N. Weber II (Sep 24, 2008)

PRR 60 said:


> Joel N. Weber II said:
> 
> 
> > I'm not sure about New York City, but Chicago has certainly tended to be a hub; is there some good reason not to move that hub to some other city?
> ...


Aren't lack of congestion and warm climate also desireable characteristics for an airline hub?


----------



## MrFSS (Sep 25, 2008)

Joel N. Weber II said:


> Aren't lack of congestion and warm climate also desireable characteristics for an airline hub?


Not at DTW. :lol:


----------



## John Bredin (Nov 20, 2008)

Airlines tell Chicago more O'Hare expansion would be premature at best

Yes, this is after a new runway was added, so perhaps *some* expansion was needed. But when the _*airlines*_ are saying more expansion is unnecessary at this time, maybe they might know a little more than the City.

(Thought I would just revive this thread rather than start a new one. It was originally my thread, anyhow. :lol: )


----------

