Atlanta is really well located as a cross point between Midwest/Chicago and FL and NYC to points South and West. It can funnel lots of people in different directions. Other airports that could compete are Nashville and Charlotte but their airports are not designed nearly as efficiently as Hartsfield currently is. Also a lot of this is baked in from the early days of commercial flying when airlines did many hops to a destination.

LA is more a destination airport more than a transfer airport. It gets huge numbers for what is does.

I have never figured out why the media is so focused on passenger traffic alone and never use the movement number more. Perfect example, if they shut down ATL for a week mainly regional east and southeast flights would be affected. If they shut down one of the big cargo hubs ANC, MEM or SDF you would know all over the country it happened. Cargo traffic is just important as passenger traffic, especially in 2020 and 2021.

Terminal 5 Expansion Progress
 

From the ORD Twitter Page:

https://pbs.twimg.com/media/FQ5Bn1rV...pg&name=medium

Looks like good progress on the Terminal 5 Expansion from above! Can't really tell how far the facade is coming along though. Hopefully the expansion is on track to complete in the summer!

You can see some new jet bridges being added at the bottom of the image!

Inside Chicago O'Hare Airport's $8.5 billion revamp
 

https://dynaimage.cdn.cnn.com/cnn/q_...t-makeover.jpg

Inside Chicago O'Hare Airport's $8.5 billion revamp

Read more - https://www.cnn.com/travel/article/c...ver/index.html

Great picture! It almost looks as though new bridges are already in use from the expansion, but I'm assuming that's just planes parking there that need a space to park. Also looks like the amenity expansion in the existing portion is coming along nicely.

Frontier Airlines Kicks Off Its Chicago Midway Flights

“On Thursday, Frontier launched a swag of new routes from Chicago's Midway Airport, locking down that airport's new role as Frontier's key Chicago airport. From zero to hero, Frontier will now fly from Midway (MDW) to Atlanta, Dallas, Denver, Las Vegas, Ontario, Phoenix, Tampa, and Trenton. Later in the year, Frontier will begin flights from Midway to Philadelphia, Orlando, and Fort Lauderdale.”

https://simpleflying.com/frontier-ai...idway-flights/

Chicago might have a problem if the majors don't pick up flying next year. They have limited their flying at ORD shifting to cities like Denver, Charlotte, Atlanta and Dallas still this year so don't look for good numbers in 2022. We still have alot of movements due to the heavy cargo flight counts but I am surprised at the lack of passenger flights compared to 2019.

Does anyone know the plan for the old Lot E? It's a huge parking lot with an existing ATS people mover station. I don't know why they would just let it sit there abandoned.

No idea but that's a prime spot for a nice shiny new hotel development. Direct access to the ATS would be a huge benefit and they really wouldn't have to lose any parking spots, they could actually add more covered spots as part of a development in conjunction with a new hotel partner and charge more. The Hilton that's connected to the terminals is really getting long in the tooth and could use some competition. It's dark, noisy, dated, and the food offerings are terrible.

I think the bulk of the area is inside the new larger RPZs. IIRC they were originally required to demo the old ATS station once 27C was lengthened but since nothing seems to be happening on that front maybe they are waiting on an FAA decision.

Yeah I know it's inside the RPZ but you can still park cars in the RPZ. I didn't think the station was so tall that it would be a safety issue either.

Seems foolish to throw away a perfectly good parking lot with people-mover access. That station would cost 60M to build new, and it's not even very old - it's newer than the Orange Line! Not to mention the savings you can get from discontinuing the shuttle buses.

I agree it should be kept and used if possible. I don't think the aviation department actually wanted to get rid of it but the vertical height of the station roof I think was a concern for the FAA with the longer 27C. Since it has not been demoed yet maybe that's changed or they are waiting for them to decide.

I sort of wish they would push rideshare pickup out to this spot so pickups don't clog the departure level curbs.

T5 expansion completion date
 

Has there been any details provided on the new Delta Club at T5? I couldn’t find anything other than an opening this fall. Is it safe to assume it will double as a Sky Team lounge too?

Also, are there any other details about the interior of The expanded T5, such as other lounges going in, or even expanded lounges?

What is the latest completion date?

I had assumed the end of the year? I flew out of T5 earlier this week and it still looked like things were under construction. I wasn't able to get a close look since the T5 security checkpoint situation is currently fucked if you have a few groups of flights close together. I waited in line for 50 minutes and almost missed boarding my SW flight. I'm assuming it will be much better after T5 is done and they move Delta flights over.

I fly back Sunday evening and will try to see if anything looks close to done.

Flair Canada started service today with a 737 MAX to Toronto. Nice bright colors contrast the dull US mainline colors.

Also Icelandair upgraded to 757-300 aircraft to Chicago this week.

O'Hare overhaul moving forward, delayed to 2030
https://www.chicagobusiness.com/airl...erhaul-delayed

Not sure if it was included in that article or not but the groundbreaking on the new six-level parking garage at Terminal 5 broke ground today.

Actually, they will opened in September. Delta will move to T5 on September 10.

Ummm, what?? What's going on?? They still awaits from FAA approval. They will be approved real soon.

Paywall behind article, can someone post details?

Also, great to see the A380 back at ORD! British Airways restarted its daily LHR-ORD A380 service on June 1st 2022!

Nothing too serious. The pandemic delayed all the federal regulatory agencies, so the clock resets as everything works through the regulatory queue.