I am curious how you think aircraft movements is more important to driving economic growth in a city? I would like to understand. Everything I have read over the last ten years has talked about how the number of people drives much more economic impact to a city than aircraft movement with how the passengers spend money and how they bring intellectual property to local companies that helps them grow to lead to job stimulation. It is a tricky data point as some passengers are only in transit.

Passenger data does show that since 1994, ORD (+11%) has not grown compared to the rivals of LAX (+47%), DFW (+55%), ATL (+93%), DEN (+135%), and IAH (+105%).

Well, during the first part of my career, I used to take a taxiway on the left side of the runway after landing. Now I take a right. There is a lot going on (economically) on the north and south sides of O'Hare.

I am talking about economic growth for all of Chicagoland not only the airport.

Gates are most definitely not a limiting factor to passenger growth, not right now at least. Sure, United can't have 600 flights all depart at 9AM but they there is gate availability throughout the day for them to add multiple additional departure banks. Suggesting that ORD would have millions more passengers if only there were more gates is just not accurate.

That being said the city should absolutely be planning for a future where more gates are needed and insist on a committed timeline for S-2, even if the ordering is changed up a bit.

There are two main ways for ORD to grow now without more gates.
1) American could certainly add a bank and possibly even United.
2) The airlines could replace smaller regional jets with mainline.

But ORD does lack wide body gates which limit's int'l growth to ORD and potentially some domestic growth if they would deploy more wide bodies on trunk domestic routes. United has talked publicly that ORD lacks wide body gates at T1, and between 2 and 8pm at T5. Sadly only a 767 can fit between the B and C concourses. This limitation is exactly how ORD doesn't plan for the future.

American did cite this a few years back for T3 as well, but we know this is not a constraint now with having both Aer Lingus and British Airways move to T3. The customs and inspection facilities are also a limiting factor for international growth as everything is in T5.

One of my points is that the city needs O'Hare to grow its passenger numbers as that directly leads to growth in the city. 11% growth at ORD since 1994 is actually a decline in the market. Since 1994 passenger enplanements in the entire US have increased by 75%.

O'hare actually did a really good job in constructing the new runway configuration, but the terminal size and infrastructure are in poor shape. Hopefully the new T2 can get started asap with as minimal cuts as possible.

The whole T2 Global Terminal idea is premised on increasing capacity for larger international jets and creating a new set of customs facilities in that location, in addition to those in T5.

The constraints you listed are *exactly* the ones that will be fixed with the city's new proposed sequence. The satellite #2 would mostly benefit domestic flights.

There was a news conference at T3 today to kick off the T3 upgrade that should start in earnest the next month or two.

The real news though is there was a tone of optimism regarding the overall TAP expansion plans.

https://www.chicagobusiness.com/airl...gates-promised

My hope is we get an announcement sooner than later on the finalized agreement between all parties so this work can finally kick off.

Chicago.Gov photos via Twitter
 

Images inside Twitter

https://twitter.com/fly2ohare/status...79761547345947

https://www.chicagotribune.com/2024/...-ohare-budget/

The big question now is will OGT be VE'd to allow for enough funds to fund the tunnel + S2, or do we get the original spec'd OGT......

Yep. I wonder when we will see renders of the revamped T2. Or eve if we will?

In a sense I am excited to see the T2 being worked on first. Trying to timeline out the prospect of a T2 being done around 2030 or later felt so far away.

Now depending on how fast the timetable is maybe T2 could be open as soon as the end of 2028?

I think you will see work start on S1 immediately, and they will slowly tear down T2 and rebuild it. I would suspect they are going to do that so they can manage gate access during construction through a phased approach since they aren't doing S1 + S2 first.

No updated renderings.... But an updated timetable on construction. I am really curious why this won't get started until next year? The temporary gates at the end of C are basically done..... So much utility work has been done, and it can't take that long to fill in the detention basin in the central part of the airfield. The only real reason I can think of is the process the city has to go through to actually get the money out the door.

https://www.chicagobusiness.com/airl...egin-next-year

It's a fucking disgrace that the city is using the pandemic as an excuse for the delays when other airports did the opposite and used the reduced operations to speed up construction and reduce costs.

We slow-rolled the project and now the costs are ballooning, the airlines are balking, and we're going to end up with a watered down design and potentially no second satellite or a super delayed one at a minimum (maybe 2040?). Financing and construction costs will have doubled before this thing even gets started compared to what it could have been.

I realize hindsight is 20/20 but once again our city government shit the bed on a golden opportunity.

Finally got some new renderings for the first Satellite:

https://s3-rd-prod.chicagobusiness.c...20Norviska.jpg

https://archive.is/ACCF8/34aef4c1bbb...7742ffc925.jpg

https://archive.is/ACCF8/53272c6cd7b...32d8c1b1e0.jpg

https://archive.is/ACCF8/f7d6bfde1f6...8b555324c.webp

https://archive.is/ACCF8/fce483273b3...bf78140e1.webp

https://www.chicagobusiness.com/airl...icle1-readmore

Is that bus setup for a T5 connection? Should probably have a bit more weather protection given the climate...

Extremely happy with this design. It's not anything crazy, but it's very sexy. Love the emphasis on wide windows with lighting and the nod to the wooden aesthetic we are seeing in the OGT (assuming same design). Also, I find this design much more appealing than the T5 expansion. Having walked down to check out the T5 expansion, while bright, large, and clean - It often feels sterile. This feels much much warmer and a portion of the airport I would want to go lounge at.

      It looks plenty nice. Noting artistic or signature looking about it, nor one that will win any awards, but light, airy, and functional.
 
       While I slightly agree with you about the T5 extension, I think it will look much better when it has some vendors and concessions put in. I love the look of the new T5 extension, even if the all white/blue glass looks a bit retread of a Chinese Airport or Train station.

         Immediately what I was thinking. I am guessing (more hoping) it will only serve as an interim solution until the airside transit train is built. Given unforgiving Chicago weather I hope they have enclosures that practically meet the bus doors. It is one thing to have to walk the tarmac on a sunny Carribean or Spanish island, it is a whole other experience to deal with Chicago cold and winds in mid-January, even if just for 10-20 seconds.

I really like that design!

I suspect the updated T2 design will have similarities, to be more consistent throughout the airport..the question is, did the updated T2 inform the satellites, or vice-versa?
Seeing those large ocular skylites in the renderings above, they look somewhat similar to the updated roof plan and building sections I saw for T2, perhaps the big terminal did influence the satellite designs…and conversely, we may be getting a taste of what the Global Hub will look like based on these images.

If I had to guess, I would suspect the OGT design has influenced the S1 design..... If I recall, the original renderings we saw of satellites was based on a uniform SOM design during the competition. Looks like they went back and made adjustments to bring the S1 design closer to the OGT design......

I really like it. That curved end elevation on the north especially feels very Nordic to me, like something Aalto or Saarinen would do. The interior with the big barrel vault reminds me of the old Willow Run airport outside Detroit.

I also appreciate all the wood tones, I've seen that in some mid-budget airports like MCI and MSY but big-city terminals at LGA, SFO etc are very sleek and cold-feeling. Given Chicago's gloomy weather I think a little bit of "hygge" in the airport goes a long way. Hell, they should even put in some fireplaces and oversized armchairs!

I don't love how the sterile corridor is glassed-in, though. Similar corridors I've seen in Madrid and Vancouver are open-air, it makes the terminal feel a lot more spacious. Is there really such a huge security risk to an open-air corridor?

Yeah, when the satellite opens the only customs facility is still in T5. So they will use the sterile corridor and the bus system to shuttle international arrivals over to T5 for a few years, until the new T2 is built.

I could be wrong but I don't think the train will be sterile though. They might need to build a sterile corridor in the tunnel alongside the train, with moving walkways. Or they just keep using buses, but going to T2 instead of T5.