O'Hare Int'l Hinges Its Future, Success On Modernization Effort
Chicago O'Hare is moving forward with its airfield modernization plans. Mayor Richard Daley and Chicago aviation officials on Dec. 23, 2002, submitted to the Federal Aviation Administration a draft Airport Layout Plan for the transformation, which includes the addition of one new runway, the relocation of three of the seven existing runways and refinement of terminal and supporting facilities. The elimination of outdated intersecting runways is expected to reduce weather-related delays by 95 percent and overall delays by 79 percent.
FAA will review the plan and provide comments on safety and design criteria. Airport officials then will incorporate FAA's comments and produce a final ALP.
O'Hare's existing seven runways all intersect, bar one. FAA requires that O'Hare's air traffic controllers reduce the number of runways available for takeoffs and landings during inclement weather, severely impacting the airport's on-time performance. However, the new airfield would be similar to more modern parallel runway configurations already used in Atlanta and Dallas.
According to the U.S. Department of Transportation's Air Travel Consumer Report published in February, O'Hare in December 2002 recorded a 77.9 percent on-time performance on a total of 26,990 arrivals. Meanwhile, in November 2002 O'Hare reported total passenger volume of nearly 5.3 million, an increase of 6.3 percent over the same period in 2001. The estimated annual capacity at O'Hare after the modernization program is completed is 76 million enplanements and 1.6 million operations.
Annual delay savings are expected to reach $370 million, according to O'Hare officials, and annual passenger delay savings are expected to reach $380 million.
"If O'Hare already were modernized, United Airlines would save $200 million a year from reduced delays," Daley said last year at a news conference.
United and American airlines are the airport's busiest carriers, with December 2002 on-time arrival performances of 81.9 percent and 78.1 percent, respectively.
The mayor acknowledged the difficulty the airlines are experiencing, "but when it comes to airport development, we have to think long term. The airline industry goes through rapid business cycles. Some carriers go out of business, and new ones are born. Over the long haul, the amount of air traffic continues to grow," Daley said.
According to a statement released by American Airlines, "despite the financial challenges facing the airline industry, the need remains for the O'Hare modernization program. As American has maintained for more than a decade, O'Hare's airfield configuration is outdated and needs to be modernized. We remain committed to the program, because of the long-term savings and more efficient operations it will bring. In the end, our customers will reap the benefits."