The way I read things, through a lot of digging, is they need to fill in the central airfield detention basin before they can build out the satellites....

https://ahcjv.com/wp-content/uploads...Conference.pdf

According to that PDF, work should have started late last year, but I don't see any award bids on the O'Hare 21 page:

https://ord21.com/bids/Pages/default.aspx

And all of the advertised bid solicitations are focused on the T3 improvements.

So..... Unless someone has some inside knowledge, it's really hard to the exact status of things, unless that detention basin work is indeed going on, and the O'Hare 21 page just hasn't been updated.

The detention pond is certainly not in the way of S-1, which is where I see most of the ground work being done (since it's actually visible from C concourse). But yea, super unclear what is actually going on.. which sadly is the norm with the CDA.

Well, and the only way anyone can confirm is by searching by bid award websites, or hoping your plane taxis close enough to this area to try to figure out what's going on.

Yeah, for sure, they could start work on S1, but I wasn't sure if they were going to do both at the same time, or one at a time. I was assuming they were going to do both at the same time.

On a side note - Hampton Social and Bar Siena are now open in T5, which is a welcome relief given the lack of dining options that were there. Below is an IG link showing Bar Siena.

https://www.instagram.com/p/C1uZU4LrSxx/

Aer Lingus Moves To Terminal 3 At Chicago O’Hare International Airport

“ Ireland’s flag carrier, Aer Lingus, will relocate its operations at Chicago O’Hare International Airport (ORD) from Terminal 5 to Terminal 3 this week. The move is expected to “create a more efficient travel experience” as the airline will join its partner, American Airlines.

The Chicago Department of Aviation (CDA) announced the development on January 17th, one week before the move on January 24th.

Aer Lingus currently offers service from ORD to its hub at Dublin Airport nine times weekly but will increase the service to 14 weekly frequencies in March, just before the busy travel season begins.“

https://simpleflying.com/aer-lingus-...ional-airport/

I'm actually surprised to see this - Mostly because Aer has partnerships with UA. If they moved to T1, that would make sense. This is in addition to the rumor British will be moving to T3 as well. This will free up a couple gates at T5, which could mean a couple new international carriers to enter T5.

On the expansion front, the powers that be are probably talking with AA/UA leaders to shore up some of the gaps in expansion costs:

https://www.dailyherald.com/20240121...minal-project/

What's a bit irritating is there is not a single quote from Johnson here. Like LF, he seems to be detached from modernization program at O'Hare.

United and Aer Lingus ended their (strange) partnership last year. Dublin also has CBP pre-clearance (you clear US customs at the Dublin airport instead of when you arrive in Chicago) so from that perspective this is no different than a domestic flight. Meaning it can both arrive and depart from T3, not just depart. It's rather strange they haven't been at T3 all this time...

I'm fairly new to all this aviation stuff. Is there any chance Aer Lingus might be joining OneWorld, especially with them seemingly cozying up with American in both Chicago and Philly?

Ahhh, Yes, I forgot about the customs situation. Yeah, in that case, makes total sense. And with the new stinger gates about to open, there's probably a little wiggle room over there now for a flight or too..... Especially with Spirit on shaky ground.

Aer Lingus is owned by IAG, (British Airway & Iberia), the are not a member OneWorld, but are part of the Oneworld joint venture with American, British Airways, Iberia and Finnair.

Their is always talk, rumors that Aer Lingus will rejoin Oneworld, but nothing concrete. :shrug:

UNITED AIRLINES ADDS CHICAGO – ATHENS SERVICE

“United will offer nonstop Chicago (ORD) – Athens (ATH) service this year during the peak summer travel period, with daily flights running May 23, 2024 through August 12.

With the addition of Athens this summer United will offer nonstop service from Chicago to 15 European cities, including:

Amsterdam (AMS)
Athens (ATH)
Barcelona (BCN)
Brussels (BRU)
Dublin (DUB)
Edinburgh (EDI)
Frankfurt (FRA)
London (LHR)
Paris (CDG)
Munich (MUC)
Milan (MXP)
Reykjavik (KEF)
Rome (FCO)
Shannon (SNN)
Zurich (ZRH)”

https://liveandletsfly.com/united-ai...hicago-athens/

Great news! The more international destinations, the more flyers are funneled from domestic Midwestern airports into ORD, boosting passenger numbers. Time to plan a trip to Naxos :cool:

Like it...Even though the latter is near Athens, I kind of feel that UA is missing the boat by not including Prague or Croatia on its summer season list. Over the past few years, I have known four different people/groups (all non-Croatians) who have made the trek to Croatia.

Plus we have the largest Croatian community inside the US.

The largest Croatian communities are in and around Chicago – around 150.000
https://hrvatiizvanrh.gov.hr/croats-...f-america/2485

United resumes Winnipeg and Chicago-Quebec in NS24

United in Northern summer 2024 season continues to resume additional routes to Canada, previously served until 2020. This includes the carrier's service resumption to Winnipeg, as well as Chicago – Quebec City.

https://www.aeroroutes.com/eng/240126-uans24ca

Tourists are probably going (mostly) to Dubrovnik, while emigrants are probably going to Zagreb? But yeah, United codeshares with Croatian Airlines, so maybe that's part of the reason (i.e. Croatian Airlines would want the transatlantic flight, but may not have the ability right now?).

..

That's behind a paywall for me, but I'm assuming this means some serious VE to the OGT?

Same. Over at Airliners.net the summary is reported as....

- "Biden Admin, the airlines, Mayor's office, and the state have basically hashed out their issues re: funding and the project will basically proceed as originally planned, with minor tweaks to the Gang terminal."

- New savings would drop price tag of the Global Terminal from 2.10b to 1.83b.

- Other cost savings would be from revised baggage facilities (reduced 30% to $597 million) for the global terminals and satellites and from the new tunnel (would reduce 25% to $665 million).

Not quite. The article states the airlines don't trust what the CDA is saying with respect to cost savings.

Ugh.... What a shit show. What's more frustrating is we are getting to a point where any further delays from construction are going to be a result of this stalemate, and not any schedule problems. From what I can tell, work on filling in the central basin has been going on for a while now, so that should be finished over the coming weeks/months. Then there's really nothing holding the satellites back as I'm pretty sure the temporary gates in C are more/less done, along with any further taxiway construction.

https://chicagoyimby.com/2024/03/rev...enderings.html


..

Granted, anonymous forum internet rumors are what they are, but if true....hopefully they are true.

Also noted by that poster is a groundbreaking announcement of the satellites by July - Which makes sense given the current state of construction activities at the moment.....

If we can still get a decent OGT along with new satellites, I will more than happy with that. I would love to see a IST or RYK airport terminal..... But that would be an unrealistic expectation.

I hope that's the case; the interstitial, 'back to the drawing boards' design version 2.0 that I saw drawings for back in 2021-22 showed a very simplified ceiling design without the rows and rows of serrated wood baffling and glass skylights. Hopefully, a happy medium was agreed upon without compromising the overall integrity of the design, and that in fact, the VE-ing was done in other areas (while still maintaining the functionality of the new global terminal).

Glad to hear that they are still moving forward without compromising the design too much (assuming the source is correct).

I always figured that there would be some compromise in the design given that the scale of the wide open spaces in the original StudioORD renderings would definitely be costly to heat/cool. Honestly, I'd be very happy if the final design combines the nature and world class elements from StudioORD's design with the functionality and efficiency of Skidmore Owings & Merrill's design. I think that would still be a world class terminal that could compare to the best in the world.

I wonder when they will release the updated renderings for the satellites and Global Terminal. I look forward to seeing them when they do.

Chicago O’Hare Expects Strong Summer, Seeks Return To 2019 Traffic Levels

“Chicago O’Hare International Airport (ORD) recovered to 87.3% of 2019 passenger traffic levels in 2023, but the airport expects “sustained” growth this year and is optimistic about a “strong” summer season in which traffic will be close in on pre-pandemic levels.

ORD handled 73.9 million passengers in 2023, up 8.1% over 2022, but still down 12.7% from 2019, according to statistics released by the Chicago Department of Aviation (CDA), which runs ORD and Chicago Midway Airport (MDW). MDW handled 22 million passengers in 2023, up 10.7% over 2022 and a 5.5% increase over 2019. CDA notes MDW pushed past 2019 traffic levels in the 2023 first half.”

https://aviationweek.com/air-transpo...n-2019-traffic

Please keep us updated on your situation at ORD construction. Hope they started working on it soon. Fingers crossed for groundbreaking projects by July.

Let’s do this!!

BA is moving departures to T3 at ORD
 

British Airways announced that in April their departures at O’Hare will be from T3. Additionally, they will begin a third daily flight from Chicago to Heathrow later this year as well. This is great news other than losing the A380 service to Chicago.

I am curious: A) what will happen to British Airways and SAS’ club spaces at ORD? B) what other airlines will add clubs at T5 besides LOT? Emirates, Qatar, Etihad, and Cathay Pacific offer, premium business class and club service. Their lounge options at T5 are not good. C) what gate(s) will BA use at T3? When checking their schedule this summer, it looks like they’ll be bringing in a combination of 787–10s and the 777s. But I would imagine they want the flexibility to bring in the 77W and the A350–1000 too. K19 can probably handle all of those variants, but I’ve always wondered if there is another T3 widebody gate that can accommodate the 77W.

T3 has plenty of gate capacity for partners now that AA has retreated so much. I believe that AA allowing partners to use their gates will actually count toward AA's gate utilization for the purpose of the city's re-allocation process. So this is probably a move by AA to try to lose as few gates (likely to UA) as possible without having to actually add (as many) flights themselves.

With respect to SAS, I would expect that club to close since SAS is going to Sky Team, which is serviced by Delta's new lounge in T5. I'm not aware of any plans, but it would be nice to see that space converted into a new Priority Pass of some kind given Swissport is a joke.

It's entirely possible there may yet be another lounge announcement. I say this because the space that Delta occupies, as part of the T5 expansion, has a mirror space on the other side of the new buildout, close to M18. Delta's lounge is 21-22 k-sf, whereas the new LOT lounge will only be 6-7 k-sf. So, it's definitely possible to put another lounge in there that's 10+ k-sf.

The BA lounge will most likely close as well since BA is moving over to T3. Can't really do much with the space since it's to small for a modern lounge. Would be a nice spot to gut it and turn it into a new restaurant or retail. It's worth noting that on the contractor's page, there is going to be new airline club space will be going in. My guess is it's going to be a new AA lounge space that will be able to accommodate increasing numbers of OW members now in T3.

Which makes me wonder about the real reasons we keep hearing about updates to the expansion plans. With BA heading to T3, that leaves only four Oneworld flights in T5. If they ultimately move over to T3, it starts to make the case for AA having a share of the new OGT pretty weak. I wonder if UA smells blood and is forcing the city and AA to renegotiate the terms of the OGT. If AA doesn't want to commit to keeping their share of flights at O'Hare, I'm sure UA would fight to occupy a greater fraction of the OGT. A few gates can be for OW/AA international arrivals, with the remaining gates slotted for UA/Star-alliance departures. UA has no room to grow right now, and the fact LOT is building out a new lounge in T5 demonstrates there is an immediate need for more space on the UA side, while BA's move demonstrates AA continues to lag at ORD.

Wait it second!! Where did you hear that?? When British Airways is moving to T3?? They don’t have enough room for another airline at entire T3. I thought they stayed at T5. This is only for international flights, not domestic flights.

It’s from BA: https://www.ba-groups.com/latest-new...rld%20partners.

Bloomberg News: O’Hare Revamp Turns Contentious After Going Billions Over Budget

Design tweaks are under review to get project back on track

I'm usually not a big fan of backroom pork barrel spending through the Fed, but in this instance, just shell out a couple billion and get the damn thing done.

This isn't some vanity project for a random district in a backwater state, it's a major international airport that needs the upgrade to sustain air traffic in the country. Given how much money is being thrown around at other various parts of the budget, I say just end this already.

I understand the airlines are being difficult, but they are paying higher fees. We are at a point now where we have no excuse to delay the commencement of the satellites given everything else is done now (runways, T5, etc).

The ORD21 website has a new schematic... looks like part of the existing T2 might be staying... or at least it has the same shape as the existing T2.

https://i.imgur.com/hg0QLhC.png

https://ord21.com/home/Pages/default.aspx

Agreed. If the feds can drop nearly $2B on a Red Line extension that will serve a relatively small populace, they should be able to fund vital upgrades to one of the nation's largest and most important air travel hubs.

I think that's an old schematic with generic terminal placeholders. Here's a story from 2019 with a similar image that came from the ORD21 site.

I don't find that to look anything like what I posted. Also:

ORD21 website as of March 6th, 2024:

https://i.imgur.com/1R26bMY.png


ORD21 website as of March 12th, 2024 (and today):

https://i.imgur.com/1ZsAB6a.png

Very interesting Crain's article on the ongoing saga that is the O'Hare Modernization Program.....

https://www.chicagobusiness.com/greg...eg-hinz-column

Also of interesting note....

Just build it already! Do it immediately!! Let’s move forward on the project and get it done soon as possible.

This mayor is a menace. Maybe it's time to advance LaShawn Fords Mayoral recall bill.

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..

Huh..... Interesting.

I was assuming they were going to pitch building just the first satellite, then a full OGT build-out with the stipulation that funding for S2 could be built at a later date.

Building out new satellites is trivial at this point given the land is there, and a ton of utility work was done on the airfield over the last couple of years.

If the city wants to push ahead with the original OGT first, and the airlines are down with it, then I would be more than happy to see that happen myself.

Looks like the Tribune didn't clarify exactly what is being negotiated. Sounds like the airlines want S1 with OGT first before any additional expansion.

https://www.chicagobusiness.com/airl...-ohare-airport

Meanwhile, Durbin is pushing hard to get the feds involved to help broker a deal where the original buildout is executed (S1 + S2 + OGT).

https://www.chicagobusiness.com/airl...hare-expansion

Dick Durbin is a professional.

Brandon Johnson....................

ITA Airways Launches New Airbus A330neo Service Between Chicago O'Hare And Rome–Fiumicino

“Italian flag carrier ITA Airways opened its newest international route, a nonstop connection between the airline's fortress hub at Rome's Fiumicino Airport (FCO) and Chicago O'Hare International Airport (ORD) on Sunday. The inaugural flight departed at around 15:00 in the afternoon from Chicago and is set to touch down shortly after 07:00 on Monday in Rome.

The aircraft operating this new transatlantic service is the Airbus A330-900neo, among the most modern in ITA Airways' fleet.”

https://simpleflying.com/ita-airways...ervice-launch/

The industry's coolest livery (Ita) is now a regular at the airport. Good to see an Italian flagship at O'Hare after the long debacle of Alitalia has finally gone past.

Things continue to move towards:

S1 + OGT

S2 after

https://www.chicagobusiness.com/airl...erms-they-want

Unfortunately, unless there's a hidden pot of money somewhere we don't yet know about, this thing is going to see some VE:

ORD = Economic Driver for Chicago?
 

I just saw the list of the busiest airport in the world by passengers from 2023. O'hare was 9th with 73M people. Up until the latter part of the 90s, ORD was the busiest airport in the world. This is important as this is one of the major drivers of the local economy. I know someone will point out that ORD is at the top or near the top for total airport movements. This only means that ORD has more regional jet flights than other hubs around the world. In fact American's hub at ORD has well over 1/2 of their flights on regional planes. ORD for American by far has the highest % of regional jets for any US hub. Passengers help drive the economy, not the total # of flights.

The City and the State most come together with the airlines to figure this out, not only how to fund this but to plan for the future beyond this vision that is taking forever to materialize. If they don't figure this out, ORD will continue to slide.

2023 = 9th at 73M
2018 = 6th at 83M
2015 = 4th at 77M
2010 = 3rd at 66M
2000 = 2nd at 72M
1994 = 1st at 66M

Might be why they are pushing so hard to get S1+OGT off the ground. If I had to guess, UA sees several routes they want to up-gauge for their regional routes they have, but they simply cannot right now due to the current nature of the terminals.

It would be super interesting to pull the numbers from a regional route in terms of passengers, then see if that route can be replicated with less frequency with a larger jet. Instead of two or three small jets to OKC a day, have one 737....errr...... A321Neo to accommodate the same volume.

Don't forget, cargo flights are aircraft movements that do not add to passenger totals. That is why I think movements are the most important number.