MDW/ORD | Chicago Area Airports

[Леонид]

love this airport ... hope i can visit it once .. soonnnn

[diablo234]

[nomarandlee]

Some good landings and plane spotting




Plane spotting at O'Hare (includes 747, 777,and a330)


HD spotting planes at chicago ohare





Chicago O'Hare Tram

[kjoseph717]

Glad to see a thread like this has and is gaining in popularity momentum.

I'm a Chicago Native, and frequently use O'Hare Airport.

It has a great runway layout and uses the allotted space (which it has plenty of) well, however, one of the things I think is true with O'Hare is evident throughout many prime examples of U.S. Aviation . It's decentralized layout.

Originally Posted by Jan

Here is my top 5 reasons why I really don't like O'Hare:

5. Having to pay for wifi and chronic lack of power sockets
4. Your culinary options: McDonalds, Pizza Hut or that news stand which also sells M&M's.
3. Unkind ground staff, passport control always giving me hassle because of the Arab, Chinese and Russian visa's
2. Waiting lines up to an hour for safety inspections and passport control.
1. Signage. The town's drunk must have been in charge of this one. Expect to be routed through parking garages on your way to the metro, or direction signs which just mysteriously disappear.

Some of the older U.S. aviation mega hubs suffer from decentralized construction plans. O'Hare, JFK and LAX, and London Heathrow are Prime examples, where during the Jet Age, Airlines were by themselves, to construct terminals. Terminal footprints were constructed, and due to high traffic and demand they were left to themselves to renovate spaces and modernize buildings, unlike other, more centrally planned aviation hubs in the U.S., today, those facilities suffer from different building footprints, temporary walkways and connections, and horrid signage.

The Unique thing about O'hare's construction and layout is that unlike JFK, LAX, Kingsford Smith, or Heathrow, the terminals at O'Hare are Centrally planned (At least by way of footprint, with the domestic terminals forming a half hexagon with alternating Y and I pier designs) However inside, the facilities differ by various alterations and airline renovations. (With the exception of United's B and C concourses in terminal 1, modified from the original plan)

One of the things I like about Atlanta's Airport, or Denver, and something I think many people like about the brilliant airports in Asia is their central terminal layout. In many cases the entire building goes from drawing board to construction, so spaces can be light, airy and spacious, like Hong Kong, Dubai, or Singapore.

Given current aviation trends, the transition from multiple independent terminal buildings to a solid structure system is difficult, as Heathrow's terminal 2 construction clearly demonstrates.

One thing O'Hare will have to do is post better signage at the airport, especially with the higher traffic volumes made possible by the new runway layout. but that's just my $ 00.02

I don't know if anybody posted this already, but O'hare is really open about its modernization plan and has pdf's of the plans here...

http://www.ohare.com/MasterPlan/

[diablo234]

I figured I should include Midway Airport into this thread as well since Chicago Midway is also one of the busiest airports in the US and a the largest focus city for Southwest Airlines and hosts other Low Cost Carriers such as Air Tran as well. This airport mostly handles domestic traffic with a few exceptions noted below. This airport is also much closer in than O' Hare and the airport actually pre-dates O' Hare (which opened to passenger traffic in the 1960's) since it opened in 1923. Aside from Southwest Airlines other US Airlines serving this airport include Air Tran, Delta, and Frontier.







Foreign Airlines serving Chicago Midway (MDW) as of 2011:







Some photos of the airport.

[diablo234]

Some more photos of Chicago Midway.

image hosted on flickr

Midway Airport by rbglasson

image hosted on flickr

Chicago Midway by yuan 2003

image hosted on flickr

Welcome to Chicago Midway International Airport by wallyg's

image hosted on flickr

December at Midway by alykat

image hosted on flickr

Bike Parking at Chicago's Midway Airport by Chasqui (Luis Tamayo)'s

image hosted on flickr

Midway Airport by zol87

[diablo234]

More photos of Midway.

[geogregor]

Originally Posted by Jan

Here is my top 5 reasons why I really don't like O'Hare:
3. Unkind ground staff, passport control always giving me hassle because of the Arab, Chinese and Russian visa's
2. Waiting lines up to an hour for safety inspections and passport control.

Is it really the case? So far I was avoiding flying to airports like JFK or ORD precisely to avoid such problems.
But I might be flying to ORD in September. Do they give a lot of hassle to non American visitors? Let say comparing to MSP, DFW or BOS? Are lines really long?
I've been many times to the US but I'm always slightly paranoid that immigration will turn me back

There was news few days ago in one of the Polish newspapers about two girls turned back from Newark. Border officials didn't let them call anyone, accused them of going to work illegally, send them to some immigration facilities where they had to strip naked and all the time refused to inform Polish consulate claiming that girls were not technically inside USA.


I hope they are a bit more sensitive in ORD

[diablo234]

Originally Posted by geogregor

Is it really the case? So far I was avoiding flying to airports like JFK or ORD precisely to avoid such problems.
But I might be flying to ORD in September. Do they give a lot of hassle to non American visitors? Let say comparing to MSP, DFW or BOS? Are lines really long?
I've been many times to the US but I'm always slightly paranoid that immigration will turn me back

There was news few days ago in one of the Polish newspapers about two girls turned back from Newark. Border officials didn't let them call anyone, accused them of going to work illegally, send them to some immigration facilities where they had to strip naked and all the time refused to inform Polish consulate claiming that girls were not technically inside USA.


I hope they are a bit more sensitive in ORD

If you look like you are just visiting, I don't think US Customs would care. If you look like you are here to work (such as carrying around a resume, or having a few business cards on your person) then you would seem suspicious. Just answer their questions in a straightforward manner and I would not foresee any problems.

Anyways in my experience changing flights at ORD the lines at customs can be pretty long but they also move pretty quick.

Enjoy your visit.

[Bart_LCY]

Well, I don't agree. Having US so called "green card" and flying quite often to London and back to visit relatives and to have same fun there I was questioned in a very rude manner what's for me in London, why I fly there so often etc. And in a winter time my Mom visiting me had to wait in a passport control line for two an a half hours! Not to mention the unnaceptable food-court area, too small for such a big airport and almost non-existing on arrivals level.

I don't recommend flying to ORD on international flight.

[diablo234]

So you have had one bad experience? Okay

Anyways lets just keep this thread orientated on new developments at O' Hare and Midway. If you have a complaint about the airport just create a new thread somewhere.

[geogregor]

Originally Posted by diablo234

So you have had one bad experience? Okay

Anyways lets just keep this thread orientated on new developments at O' Hare and Midway. If you have a complaint about the airport just create a new thread somewhere.

Why only developments? I find comments about quality of service (food, shopping, waiting times and facilities etc.) quite useful. If you add food franchises do you count it as a development or just service improvement?
New airline. Is it development?

BTW the thread title is: "MDW/ORD | Chicago Area Airports"
It doesn't say anything about "developments only".

[diablo234]

Originally Posted by geogregor

Why only developments? I find comments about quality of service (food, shopping, waiting times and facilities etc.) quite useful. If you add food franchises do you count it as a development or just service improvement?
New airline. Is it development?

BTW the thread title is: "MDW/ORD | Chicago Area Airports"
It doesn't say anything about "developments only".

Honestly some of these criticisms can be applied to any major US airport but I digress.

Anyways I created this thread to highlight any new developments, airline services, etc taking place at either Chicago or Midway and I intend to keep the focus of this thread exactly on that. The whole purpose of this website is to highlight new infastructure/building taking place, or other newsworthy events such as new airline services, not to have a huge debate on why this airport/city sucks (which is against SSC's rules and regulations btw).

I understand that many people have had several bad experiences there but there are numerous other forums such as where they can discuss how "horrible" their experiences at O' Hare were. Having one long rant about why ORD or MDW sucks here takes away the single purpose of this thread.

[geogregor]

Originally Posted by diablo234

Honestly some of these criticisms can be applied to any major US airport but I digress.

Anyways I created this thread to highlight any new developments, airline services, etc taking place at either Chicago or Midway and I intend to keep the focus of this thread exactly on that. The whole purpose of this website is to highlight new infastructure/building taking place, or other newsworthy events such as new airline services, not to have a huge debate on why this airport/city sucks (which is against SSC's rules and regulations btw).

I understand that many people have had several bad experiences there but there are numerous other forums such as where they can discuss how "horrible" their experiences at O' Hare were. Having one long rant about why ORD or MDW sucks here takes away the single purpose of this thread.

Who said about sharing horrible experiences???
But some informations about quality of service are not against SSC's rules. In plenty of other threads people have robust discussion about different subjects rather than strictly just posting glossy pictures and renderings copied from the official websites or newspaper articles.
That's why it is called forum rather than photo website of purely message board.

[diablo234]

Originally Posted by geogregor

Who said about sharing horrible experiences???
But some informations about quality of service are not against SSC's rules. In plenty of other threads people have robust discussion about different subjects rather than strictly just posting glossy pictures and renderings copied from the official websites or newspaper articles.
That's why it is called forum rather than photo website of purely message board.

I don't have a problem with discussing about people's negative or positive experiences with the airports in question.

However I also just don't want it to take up ten or more pages of this thread for example since it takes away from discussing on here, any new developments occuring at either ORD or MDW or any other airport on here for that matter.

[diablo234]

Air France, Alitalia to suspend service out of O'Hare
By Robert Channick
7:06 p.m. CDT, July 12, 2011
By Robert Channick
http://www.chicagotribune.com/busine...obref=obinsite

7:06 p.m. CDT, July 12, 2011
Terminal 5 at O'Hare International Airport will have a little less of an international flavor this winter. Two major European carriers, Alitalia and Air France-KLM, will temporarily suspend direct service out of Chicago in response to high fuel prices and sagging seasonal demand.

Alitalia will ground its daily Chicago-to-Rome route in December, with plans to resume service in April. And Air France-KLM will halt its daily Chicago-to-Paris flight from October to March, with Delta Air Lines taking over the route in the interim.

O'Hare International Airport "Air France saw where they could use that aircraft more profitably somewhere else," said Trebor Banstetter, a Delta spokesman. "Because Delta has actually cut back on a number of trans-Atlantic winter routes, we had that plane available."

The three, along with KLM, the Dutch airline that merged with Air France in 2004, are part of a venture to share capacity, bookings and profits on service between North America and Europe. The cutbacks are an effort to reduce trans-Atlantic capacity by about 10 percent this winter in the face of rising fuel costs, which have grown 51 percent in the last year, according to the International Air Transport Association.

"Jet fuel prices have gone up incredibly this year, and these flights are very costly to operate from a fuel basis," Banstetter said. "We've brought down our capacity somewhat during the winter season because that's when demand for flying drops quite a bit."

Launched in 1997 by KLM and Northwest Airlines, which merged with Delta in 2008, the venture took full flight in 2009 with the coordinated service between Air France-KLM and Delta. Alitalia joined last year, giving the venture 26 percent of the airline industry's trans-Atlantic capacity.

..

[Леонид]

great use of space and land for the runways in Midway!!

[diablo234]

Viva Aerobus is to start new direct service to Monterrey from Chicago-Midway.

VivaAerobus Now Traveling to Chicago to Connect with Monterrey

[diablo234]

Originally Posted by Леонид

great use of space and land for the runways in Midway!!

Unfortunately there is not much land to go around since right after Midway was built new neighborhoods sprouted up besides it making expansion impossible, which is why many politicians in the Chicago area are looking at a third airport to relieve passenger operations at both Midway and O' Hare. So far they have looked into either building a new airport at Peotone or expanding the airport in Gary, Indiana.

[diablo234]

Chicago Tribune - 2 planes clip wings at O'Hare