This one guy streams landings and takeoffs at O'Hare every Tuesday and Thursday, it's strangely mesmerizing to watch. He must have some special permission to be so close to the action. Usually has a few thousand viewers... thought I'd share here-

https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCtN...efhdU5N0mFUU8g

Yeah. . . this is the weirdest thing I find myself watching on YouTube. . . just hours of ORD traffic. . . it is mesmerizing. . .

. . .

I think he takes that by South cargo with a real long lens. You get a great view of 28R/10L and 28C/10C from that area. That looks like it's almost at Irving part road by that construction parking area. So way far west atleast on the July 28th footage. Amazing how many upgrades Delta has to 757's lately. Domestic pax loads have been crazy for everyone!!

A surprising good news story at O'Hare

https://www.chicagobusiness.com/greg...ws-story-ohare

Paywall behind this article for me, but if anyone can read it, what does it say about the project?

I'm also confused how it could be on schedule if the Terminal 5 expansion is already opening a year late. And we still don't have any news on what the satellite concourses are going to look like, which were originally stated to break ground in 2022.

Also, I've seen TheCuriousSpotter's livestreams at O'Hare! They are pretty good!

The article says that the 10 new gates at T5 will open in late 2022 or early 2023. Then the C concourse expansion will begin. Afterwards they'll start construction on the next satellite concourse at T1. When those projects are complete, T2 will be demolished and replaced with the new global terminal. Design is 10% complete and the project is still anticipated to wrap up in 2028.

The article also says the ATS might open this fall.

Jamie Rhee, the aviation commissioner, says that covid actually allowed work to be completed quicker and that United and Southwest's expansions are proof that the demand and revenue will follow to allow the project to be completed.

Chicago’s Airports Recognized As Travelers’ Favorites By Global Traveler Magazine

https://www.chicago.gov/city/en/dept...st/832021.html

Sure it is...

Yeah, I find that hard to believe though I guess most large American airports suck. At least O'Hare has Frontera!

Yes, all our big airports suck in their own particular ways (concessions, ground transportation access, seating, amenities, connections, etc). I think that overall the judgment that ORD sucks the least is probably correct at this point.

I wonder if transportation access to downtown helped propel O'hare to the top. Ive been to most major airports in the country and their transportation to their city downtowns mostly suck in comparison.

The runway realignment has also had a major impact on decreasing delays. ORD now has more parallel runways than it knows what to do with; the main choke point is now terminal/gate space.

Rember the bad old day when sitting in your plane on the tarmac in lines 20, even 30, planes long just to take off was the norm at peak times? Now, if you happen to land a bit early, you sit in the plane on the tarmac waiting for a gate to open.


It went from being runway-restricted to now being terminal-restricted.

Right most people's negative perceptions of ORD resulted from the notorious tendency for airfield delays. Perceptions which are now out of date.

I'm an O'Hare booster as much as anyone but the terminal interiors (including the restaurants and shopping) are all terrible, even by US standards. Terminal C at Newark has the best dining and as far as shopping, well, I don't ever actually shop at an airport but just from appearances JFK terminal 4 is lightyears ahead of anything O'Hare has.

The interiors of O'Hare are dated and boy do they look it.

I was just in JFK T4 and yeah it's good, though it is also substantially newer than comparable terminals at ORD. What is interesting is how much better it is than T8 which is just about the same age but is dingier, darker, and has worse/more sparse concessions by a wide margin.

As someone who just spent a large amount of time in T5 flying to London this week, man does T5 need a boost on the restaurant/shopping side. It's by far the worst terminal in my opinion.

I am assuming that will all change when the addition is fixed, but damn does it suck right now.

I definitely agree that O'Hare right now is far from the best, but it's also far from the worst imo. The only really bad terminal at ORD is Terminal 2 and that is getting demolished and replaced by the Global Terminal. Terminal 5 definitely doesn't compare to intl terminals at even SFO, LAX, DFW, JFK, etc, but I think the Global Terminal will fix that and is one of the best looking terminals no matter which design they go for out of the 5. In fact, I think the Global Terminal project is the only US airport project that looks comparable to the nice airports in East Asia and the Middle East. Where O'Hare really wins is flight options. Many airlines have hubs/focus cities here with plenty of flights and pre-covid was the only airport in the country where you could fly nonstop to all 6 continents (excluding Antartica obviously). You simply will never get that at your small "nice" airport.

If you want to talk about bad airports, my local major airport (Philadelphia since there is no major airport in Wilmington, DE) is miles worse than O'Hare. All the terminals (except for A West) are old, dirty, dated and just miserable places to be. Congestion is also bad here, and the only airline to have decent presence here is American Airlines (which is bad). Plus it's usually much cheaper to drive 1-3 hours to Baltimore, NYC or DC and fly out of those airports.

Sadly (for me and my fellow Chicago-based Polar researchers), O'Hare does not have direct flights to Antarctica. However, the direct flights to Auckland make going to Antarctica much less painful than it used to be. But once ANZ flights resume (now planned for January) it'll be back to 6 continents.

Ironically, Delaware is the only state you can't fly to from O'Hare (ok, Wyoming is only flyable direct seasonally).

That's what I meant, 6 continents (except Antartica obviously)

That's cause our only commercial Airport (Wilmington Airport) only has 3 flights a week to Orlando on Frontier and that's it. Delaware used to be the only state in the country without commercial service until Frontier returned this year. Our proximity to PHL, BWI, DCA, IAD, JFK, EWR, and LGA hurts us. You used to be able to fly nonstop from Chicago to Wilmington from 2013-2015.

Finnair Set To Fly To Chicago All Year

“Finnair is set to operate year-round flights on its route to Chicago. The airline typically only operates the route in the summer season, though it will now also operate during the winter season.”

https://simpleflying.com/finnair-sto...north-america/

Another European cargo airline started service from Amsterdam via London Stansted to only one city in North America, Chicago ORD with A330-343 cargo aircraft. Geodis Air Network.


https://www.flightradar24.com/data/aircraft/g-eods