del

Are they building another tower at the south end of the airport? Something's under construction there and I happened to see it off of 294. . . anyone?

. . .

Yes, the new FAA south tower.

^ Yeah, the south airfield control tower. The far south runway is to open next year, which will make things too much of a stretch with the existing tower. The tower is probably topped out by now, assuming they weren't interrupted unduly by the fury of Chiberia.

I didn't realize a new tower was going up. Here are some renderings:

http://www.exp.com/exp.do?action=get...d=1642&lang=en

http://www.exp.com/exp.do?action=get...d=1641&lang=en

Ah. . . Thanks. . . I don't think it's topped out yet though. . .

. . .

EVA Air
 

Eva Air to O'Hare in 2015. T5 is bulging at the seems. I'm surprised how little the airport is doing to support future int'l space/growth with terminal and gate space.

^ Great news. What are their current destinations outbound from the US (I assume from LAX, SFO, maybe New York, etc.) -- only Taipei?

Can more alliance partners be shifted from T5 to T3/T1? Or are you saying T5 arrival gate capacity itself maxes out at the busy times of day?

Thanks for posting. It reminds me they popped up earlier in this thread and we discussed them briefly a long time ago, but I'd completely forgotten. It looks like an uncomfortable fusion of two different styles and I wish we could have avoided it. But it's not unusual for control towers.

Some interesting stats pulled from airliners.net:

COUNTRY RANKS BY WEEKLY SEAT CAPACITY (EACH WAY)
1. Canada – 33,269
2. United Kingdom (incl. Cayman Islands) – 18,964
3. Germany – 16,474
4. China (incl. Hong Kong) – 13,444
5. Mexico – 12,104
6. Japan – 7,615
7. Ireland – 5,915
8. France – 4,914
9. Netherlands (incl. Aruba & St. Maarten) – 4,633
10. United Arab Emirates – 4,158
11. South Korea – 3,347
12. Switzerland – 2,832
13. Poland – 2,772
14. Spain – 2,770
15. Italy – 2,725
16. India – 2,394
17. Qatar – 2,345
18. Belgium – 2,152
19. Turkey – 2,023
20. Brazil – 1,883
= Singapore – 1,883
22. Sweden – 1,848
23. Jordan – 1,778
24. Denmark – 1,715
25. Austria – 1,575
= Finland – 1,575
27. Panama – 1,085
28. Guatemala – 1,078
29. El Salvador – 840
30. Costa Rica – 616
31. Bahamas – 280
32. Jamaica – 278
33. Dominican Republic – 118



More seats to China than Mexico.

perhaps Volaris, which flies out of MDW to 4 destinations in mexico, siphons off some of the mexico traffic from ORD?

but it does seem odd that with chicago's GIANT mexican population and GIANT market of winter-escapers that there aren't more seats going to mexico.

Interesting stats...Without Mexicana flights Mexico went down as the MX flights were so cheap. Some of these numbers seem off. Must include seats blocked on other carriers, but not direct flight seats.

[QUOTE=denizen467;6468907]^ Thanks for posting this.

Interesting factoid from the Tribune coverage of this -- existing Emirates freight service at ORD carried nearly 2 X the cargo tonnage out to DXB than it carried in from DXB. I wonder what we are exporting...


I work in the air freight business, I see lots of medical equipment heading to the middle-east, everyday.

^ Perhaps it's more of a disposable income thing?

^ I have several Mexican American friends that I grew up with, and in their annual vacations to Mexico, their families always drove down there instead of flying. Even with the distance from Chicago, they said it was always more convenient to drive due to the eccentric auto rental business down there and the insanely expensive (and mandatory) rental insurance. Because of that, driving to Mexico (and thus avoid renting a car) is a viable alternative to flying, which is why those passenger numbers might seem so low.

But might the story about your friends be from a long time ago, before low cost carriers and internet bookings proliferated?

That's very interesting. That certainly can be very heavy stuff. Thanks for posting.

Hi All,

O'Hare station is reopens again. YAY!! They already repair the damage by last week.

Now you can take on Blue Line from O'Hare station. You don't have wait for shuttle bus at the baggage claim.

Not really related, but two Osprey's came into ORD a few days ago for the presidents visit later this week. I think it is the first visit of the presidents MV-22B Osprey tilt rotor aircraft to Chicago....Very cool airplane that is very reliable now after alot of early teething problems.

Related to the Osprey [aka "the Widowmaker" ] the POTUS is riding in them? I don't think any leader of the free world should be allowed on those.:uhh:

As far as I know only Bo the first dog have flown on one to Martha Vineyard to vacation with the Obamas.

Indeed this was years back, in the 90's and early 00's. These same friends, now in their late 20's and early 30's, all fly to Mexico now. I imagine that's partly because they remember how uncomfortable it was being stuck in a car for 18 to 24 consecutive hours :)

Source of mine has said there will be a major announcement on Tuesday with regards to O'Hare. Wouldn't give me more info other than that it's an "oh shit" announcement. Something to look forward to.

T5 expansion and/or a deal for western terminal hopefully.