Although not as long this aircraft kind of reminds me of the A380. Built by Convair in 1947!!

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Convai...ight_c1949.jpg

So this thing was still there as of yesterday evening. . . any idea why? (If this is already discussed in a posted article, forgive me)

. . .

That is strange and doesn't line up with what Flightaware shows. Are you certain it was a A380 and not the usual 777 that flies the route?

I understand it was delayed due to damage.(jet Bridge damage)

Yea, they ran the jet bridge into it, but the damage was minor and patched up quickly. It left only an hour late and was only here for a few hours on 7/19/16. Tom is getting old and his eyes mustn't be what they used to be. ;) Here is a video of the departure.

• Video Link


Expect to see another carrier fly the A380 in for another one-time trial soon. I'm not sure which airline, but probably either Lufthansa, Korean Air, British Airways, or perhaps Qatar Airways. Word is the Qatar flight is one of the best performing routes they have to the US, if not the best. That is largely due to their codeshare agreement with American Airlines.

^ Will they fly them in with styrofoam padding where the jetbridges attach? Jeez that sounds like an embarrassing mistake. Did they design something wrong? It sounds like a story you'd hear from a new airport in Nowherestan, central Asia.

The damage was done by the jetbridge manufactures people. Not to much damage, just a small dent that had to be mapped.


By the way, AA is flying 777-300's on their evening LHR flights almost daily now.

Jet Bridge
 

That is amazing that the jet bridge manufacturer's employee did that. What type of fix would Emirates need to do to this aircraft?

Other than this event with the jetbridge, was the event considered a success for ORD? Any news on if any of the carriers will be scheduling routine A380 service to ORD or just more "tests"?

Can T5 really handle 9 additional gates? From the images, It seems like just a peer extension and that they'd use the existing FIS facilities that serve the current 21 gates. I wouldn't want to be inside between noon and 7 pm if so...

Perfect takeoff from ORD. I can see that. How is EK doing at ORD? How are they? I am pretty sure the airlines will decide to bring A380 into ORD. It will happens.

OHare has big jump in cargo y/y
 

Cargo increased 20% yr over yr 2014-2015.

According to most recent FAA stats

Chicago OHare is 4th largest cargo airport (by lbs)after Anchorage, Memphis(FDX), Louisville(UPS)

4 IL ORD Chicago O'Hare International Chicago (2015)9,063,805,029 (2014)7,541,411,779 +20.19%

That new Northern Cargo terminal my be needed soon:)

Edit: BTW: Chicago-Rockford is 31st in nation.

Passenger numbers also continue to increase, but not by as much as last year. Sitting at about 3.5% increase YTD. June 2016 was the best June ever - just over 7.3m passengers. July and August tend to be the busiest months. There is a decent chance that O'Hare will top 80 million this year.

Top 10 from last year:

http://kngkyle.com/uploads/113651.png

I had an interesting exchange with a SunTimes columnist this morning. According to the FAA/DOT ORD is 3rd busiest US airport based on enplanements, behind ATL and LAX. However, ORD per Airports Council International (ACI) is 2nd busiest passenger airport in the USA. I would appreciate if someone could help clarify. This reporter was trying to cite DOT as being more accurate than ACI, but I would like to know what is the correct measurement.

I'm not positive here, but perhaps one is looking at just O&D traffic (origin & destination - people only coming/going to Chicago) while the other is counting connecting passengers as well. The generally accepted way is to include all passengers not just O&D.

Thank you, that is what I thought.

In all fairness ANC is almost exclusively a refueling stop and not a final offload point. The other top 2 and ORD are mainly final offload points.

Found this presentation. Shows one other potential layout:

http://www.flychicago.com/airportind...ation_2016.pdf

Thank you for that presentation.

I was messing around with the idea of moving the crosswind 4R/22L runway to the northwest. I think this is perfectly doable, and is probably a better migration plan. This helps solve keeping the crosswind runway useful rather than having it cross 2 main runways. I reused the existing runway and taxiway as the new A/B taxiways, which the presentation above alluded to anyway. Also, this expands the core area, allowing another concourse for UA and a migration plan to change T2. The new runway 9C/27C would need to be shortened on the west end to allow 4R/22L to operate, just like 10C/28C is shortened on the east end. I did have to adjust the angle of the runway by another 7 degrees.

http://jenner1a.tripod.com/webonmedi...?1471149621279

I wonder if anyone at FlyChicago would even listen to this.

^ I think you meant 4L/22R. Your image is failing to display at this moment, but I wonder where you put its northeast end. Recently I have been thinking about how easy it might be to reroute, eliminate, or just bury Higgins, to get a little more length on that end. Although the issue of aircraft clearing the expressway still would remain.

AA will be starting seasonal Chicago to Barcelona service next summer. They also are canceling their Chicago to Dusseldorf service, although it's not yet clear if this is a full cancellation or if Oneworld partner Air Berlin will take over the route (Dusseldorf is their hub).

The alliance partner route handover scenario seems likely; it happens often across all the USA's intl gateway airports.