Well to build out the western terminal complex and appropriate taxiways you have to eliminate 14-L and 14-R, this is something I read. The controllers also state the importance of 14-L and 14-R. As for 4R this I have taken off on this runway in 737 upto 757s.

South African Airways opens route to riches
 

Not to do with O'Hare but its pretty big news since its new service to the whole African continent. Its great to have Africa linked up with Chicago.....

http://www.suntimes.com/business/161...rica06.article

South African Airways opens route to riches
O'Hare flights 'great news for us'

December 6, 2006
BY MARY WISNIEWSKI Business Reporter

A new direct flight to Africa will open the entire continent to Chicago business, doubling or tripling the volume of trade, according to the head of an economic development group.

"This is great news for us," said Paul O'Connor of World Business Chicago, as South African Airways dislcosed details Tuesday of four weekly flights between Chicago and Johannesburg. "The newest, latest area of opportunity is the African continent, and clearly that's going to be driven out of South Africa. It's historically the business center."

Top brass of South African Airways, which announced the Chicago flights late last month, appeared at a news conference Tuesday with Mayor Daley at O'Hare's International Terminal to discuss details of the new service.

Flights to Africa from O'Hare will begin May 8. The 8,100-mile flight will make a short stop in Dakar, Senegal, in West Africa before proceeding to Johannesburg, South Africa. Passengers can connect to more than 30 cities from those two stops, according to Marc Cavaliere, executive vice president of South African Airways.


Prices for the Chicago flights were not yet available. However, comparable roundtrip flights from other U.S. cities start at $1,000, rising to $7,500 to $7,800 for business class.
South African Airways already has flights from New York and Washington, D.C. The airline decided to add Chicago, rather than a West Coast city, because of local demand and Chicago's central location, Cavaliere said.

A member of the Star Alliance, SAA codeshares with United Airlines. That means United Mileage Plus fliers can earn full mileage credit for South African Airways flights. The United connection at Chicago links SAA to 80 other U.S. cities.

Daley noted that Chicago area companies, including Aon, Hyatt, Grant Thornton, Sara Lee, Wrigley, Motorola and Navistar already have operations in Johannesburg.
"With this new air service, I expect more Chicago businesses will begin looking to Africa as they seek new markets for their products and services," Daley said.

South African companies also have operations here, including Destiny Health; Macsteel Service Centers; Logicalis, an information technology networking company and a unit of Datatec, and the paper company S.D. Warren, a unit of Sappi.
O'Connor said direct flights are essential for allowing mutual investment to grow between Chicago and Africa.

"If you change planes at that kind of distance, it gets old on the third trip -- it's physcially too much," O'Connor said. That's why direct flights are "critical."

O'Connor said current two-way cargo trade volume between Chicago and South Africa is about $300 million annually, and that could triple in coming years. That isn't counting trade in services.

Three types of traveler want to fly to Africa: the leisure traveler, the business traveler, and the "ethnic" traveller, who wants to visit family, Cavaliere said.

Traffic from the United States to South Africa increased by more than 12 percent last year, Cavaliere said.

"It has rapidly become one of the most requested, aspirational vacation-of-a-lifetime destinations," Cavaliere said.



mwisniewski@suntimes.com

O'Hare Hyatt To Shut Down For Renovations
Hotel Will Reopen In Late January

(CBS) ROSEMONT, Ill. The Hyatt Regency O'Hare is shutting down for the next month and a half for renovations.

The hotel, at 9300 W. Bryn Mawr Ave. in Rosemont, is getting a $60 million makeover.

Once it is finished, among the new features will be a lobby-level restaurant, bar and lounge area, enclosed skywalk access to the nearby Donald E. Stephens Convention Center, and meeting rooms for small and mid-sized gatherings.

A new marble floor will be put in the lobby, which will be the location of the front desk, now at street level.

The 37-year-old facility is scheduled to reopen on Jan. 29 of next year, but the work will not be done until next April. The restaurant and bar will reopen by February.

The hotel's 1,100 guest rooms will be renovated in 2008.

I didn't know that Virgin had stopped operating from and to Chicago.:shrug:

The next new destinations at I would like to see O'Hare would be some service to Buenos Aires and Moscow. It surprises me that with a substantial 1rst generation Russian population there are no flights to Moscow or anywhere east of Warsaw.

United flies to Buenos Aires, did they suspend the flights for winter\? Aeroflot pulled out of O'Hare after 9/11,

I thought Buenos Aires was listed a month ago on Wiki but its not there anymore. I'll check the UA webpage to see. I thought I remember Aeroflot being at ORD at one time. Maybe like a lot of routes they will chose to bring back some canceled pre-911 routes.

Control Tower
 

Here is a press release about that sweet new control tower.

I never heard that there was a design competition, but I am certainly glad there was. I hope the rest of the O'Hare expansion lives up to these great standards.

http://www.dmjmhn.aecom.com/NewsMedia/44/70/index.jsp
________________________

A New Tower for the Windy City
DMJM Design Selected for O’Hare Control Tower Project

Los Angeles, CA – Architecture firm DMJM Design has won the commission to design the new North Air Terminal Traffic Control Tower at Chicago’s O’Hare International Airport. O’Hare, the world’s busiest airport, has embarked on an extensive modernization program. The program involves the reconfiguration of the airport’s runways as well as the addition of a new runway that falls out of range of the existing control towers and will be served by the new control tower.

DMJM Design, with principal designer Jose Palacios, AIA, was selected by the FAA and the City of Chicago for the project which is slated for commission in June 2006.

DMJM’s competition winning scheme proposed an asymmetrical, cantilevered tower beneath the cab. The cantilevered form creates greater efficiencies of space in the 250-foot tower and maximizes visibility of the north runway. The control tower will be sheathed in a pewter-colored zinc alloy skin and presents an elegant silhouette visible from a mile away.

Lighting is an important element in the tower’s design. Palacios and the DMJM team were mindful of the need to avoid light pollution. A random pattern of cut-outs along the stairway area of the tower allows light to spill out, creating a twinkling effect similar to buildings in a skyline at night.

“An air traffic control tower is like a Swiss watch,” says Palacios, “it’s purely functional, but because of the height of the O’Hare tower, it will be a dominant form in the skyline and its aesthetic imprint on the landscape can’t be ignored.”

Chicago has a legacy of daring and elegant architecture. “We were mindful of Chicago’s great architectural heritage and wanted something daring but daring for real reasons, embodying the ‘form follows function’ principle of modernism.”

Ugh, Heathrow... I don't think any American airports are as bad as Heathrow. This expansion can only help to serve coastal citizens and international business people moving across the country.

Now there's talk of a United / Continental merger.

United is the bigger airline, but conventional wisdom is that Continental has better management. Obviously this is all speculation, but that conventional wisdom suggests to me that Chicago might not be the obvious headquarters for the merged airline, should Continental management retain control from Houston. While O'hare would still be a major hub for the consolidated airline, I still have a bit of concern over this, since as part of the consolidation many routes would likely be cut, especially international, from the non-primary hub, aside of course from the potential economic effect to O'hare and Chicago if jobs are cut.

^O'hare is not about to lose any transpacific flights in any merger to Houston. Dallas had so much trouble with their DFW-KIX route that AA axed it a few months ago, and now their DFW-PEK route is also threatened. What makes you think the new airline would relocate those routes out of IAH when the clear advantage rests with ORD? In such a merger, ORD and IAH would have nothing to worry about because their strengths are in different places. Neither would routes be cut at EWR or IAD for that matter. It's CLE's hub status that would be gone, and perhaps a few routes out of DEN would also be cut.

Why isn't Chicago the obvious HQ? It's United's largest and most important hub, United has close ties to Chicago, and United wouldn't want to piss off its home city (who happens to own an expanding Ohare). Plus, United is the bigger corporation. I don't see how you came to that conclusion

A merged HQ being in Houston is not likely. Even if you assume (as a stretch) that Continental would be the dominant player in a merger, merged companies relocate their HQs to the acquired's location all the time. Bank One of Columbus acquired First National of Chicago, and was wise to the fact that Columbus was no kind of banking center so moved the HQ to Chicago. (The KMart-Sears merger also ended up with a HQ in Hoffman Estates even though technically KMart was acquiring Sears (though essentially Lampert was just acquiring both).) In United's case I'd say it's even more so, because their business is increasingly not just flying planes but doing consumer marketing - all kinds of cross-selling with credit cards, hotels, restaurants, etc, etc. To do that well you need to be in a vibrant creative and advertising center, where Chicago trounces Houston.

The decision will ultimately rest with the Board and they live all over the world. Since most analysts favor Continental's management, it is likely they'd be running the show. I'm not sure they'd all want to uproot their lives in Houston to move north.

With the US Airways merger, although they adopted the new name, management still choose to stay put in Phoenix, the HQ for America West.

It will be interesting to see how this plays out.

That's exactly my concern. Apparently control is the sticking point to any proposed merger, so the deal might break down on personal grounds as there are some big egos involved. But if Continental management ends up running the show, I don't see at all how it's a given that they'd all be happy to uproot and move to Chicago.

I think it looks bad for UA and Chicago. Apparently, Tilton doesn't really care much about UA's future, but more feels an obligation to stock holders and creditors. I don't see him even wanting to continue managing the airline. With a merger, I expect UA to retain the name, but the HQ to be located in Houston.

Article from Wednesday's Houston Chronicle concerning the possible merger.

Continental, United discussing a merger
An agreement could create the largest U.S. airline
By BILL HENSEL JR.
Copyright 2006 Houston Chronicle


Continental and United Airlines are in preliminary talks regarding a possible merger that could create the nation's biggest carrier.

Talks between the two got under way before US Airways made a hostile bid for Delta Air Lines several weeks ago and then intensified, a source in New York familiar with the talks said Tuesday.

The US Airways bid triggered speculation about the likelihood of additional consolidations in the airline industry. Other carriers likely also are having discussions about their options.

Continental Airlines Chairman and Chief Executive Officer Larry Kellner, who was in Tel Aviv, Israel, on business Tuesday, has said he preferred that the Houston-based airline remain independent.

However, Kellner also has said the carrier would be ready to take action to protect the interests of Continental, one of Houston's largest employers, and its stakeholders.

The city is home to one of the airline's three major hubs.

"If the landscape of the U.S. airline industry does indeed change, we'll do what we need to do to act in the best interests of you, our customers, our shareholders and the communities we serve," Kellner said in a recently recorded message to employees.


United 'not waiting'
United Airlines Chief Executive Glenn Tilton has said there is too much capacity and that consolidation in the industry is needed. He indicated Tuesday that United wasn't sitting idly by while merger talks swirled.

"We are not waiting for opportunities to come to us simply because we haven't identified to you which one works best," the Associated Press quoted Tilton as saying at the conclusion of a management presentation to more than 75 analysts.

Continental spokesman Dave Messing declined to comment Tuesday when asked about a potential merger between his airline, the nation's fourth largest carrier, and United, the second biggest.

Jean Medina, spokeswoman for the suburban Chicago-based airline, also declined to comment late Tuesday.

"We don't comment on rumors or speculation," Medina said.

A factor in any merger involving Continental is that Northwest Airlines holds a so-called "golden share" of Continental, meaning it could stop another airline from taking over the Houston carrier.

Any pairing involving Continental would likely require that Continental be the buyer, which would prevent Northwest from having a say.

How well Continental and United fit together remains to be seen, although some view such a merger favorably.

"The market has always liked this combination and it provides the most international diversification," said CreditSights analyst Roger King in a recent report. "However, integration issues are almost as high as with United/American."

Such integration issues can include such things as putting two disparate corporate cultures together and merging two fleets that have totally different types of aircraft.


'A tremendous partner'
The analyst said in an interview Tuesday that Continental "would make a tremendous partner with United if they could pull it off."

The analyst said there essentially are six big airlines in the U.S., and there could be, at best, two mergers.

"One is a fairly high probability, two is a low probability and three mergers is a longshot," he said.

When it comes to a merger between Continental and United, one key is whether Tilton would take his "pile of non-cash compensation" and turn the airline over to Continental, King wrote in his recent report.


Continental 'on a roll'
"Continental management is on a roll right now, so it is hard to imagine the board throwing its management team under the bus," he wrote.

The industry buzz about consolidation got louder late last week when Northwest Airlines, which is in bankruptcy, asked for permission to hire financial adviser Evercore Partners.

Northwest, which has headquarters outside Minneapolis, said that the hiring of Evercore Partners does not mean that the company has received or is looking for a merger or acquisition opportunity. A message it posted for employees said that the company is engaged in contingency planning.

Richard Rose, a shareholder at Buchanan Ingersoll, who focuses on mergers and acquisitions, said Tuesday that he would expect Delta and Northwest to get together before US Airways and Delta.

"I would think it would be an easy deal to accomplish," Rose said. "That is what I read out of Northwest's hiring of a banker, to see if they can't work on finding financing to be a white knight to Delta, which makes good sense. It was a way to give Delta an alternative to US Airways."

bill.hensel@chron.com

^ why the need to relocate willow-higgins creek? Is this important for storm runoff? they can't just fill the damn thing in?

City wins ruling in O'Hare expansion battle


By Paul Merrion
Dec. 19, 2006

(Crain’s) — Chicago has won another round in the multi-pronged legal battle over expansion of O’Hare International Airport.
But airport expansion foes may ask the Supreme Court to review last week’s decision by the District of Columbia Circuit Court of Appeals, which denied a request to reconsider its August decision relating to the city’s plan to use part of adjacent St. Johannes Cemetery to locate a new runway.

The court ruled that the city’s plans are not a federal action subject to the federal Religious Freedom Restoration Act, and that the FAA’s approval of the airport expansion plan was not a final order that could be litigated.

“We may take an appeal of that,” says Joseph Karaganis, attorney for the Village of Bensenville, one of the parties that brought the suit against the city of Chicago and the Federal Aviation Administration.

But a more recent filing by airport foes in the same court may make last week’s decision a moot point. Expansion opponents sued in November to apply the cemetery protection law to grant funding decisions by the FAA made after the court’s August decision.

"We are pleased with the Court's decision because it affirms the O'Hare Modernization Program's importance to the national aviation system," Rosemarie S. Andolino, executive director of the program, said in a statement. "Construction continues on this critical project, and we look forward to delivering much-needed capacity enhancement and delay reduction for air passengers and the airlines operating at O'Hare."

^Runway 10/28 is really helping ATL at the moment, and given that old runway 8R was closed immediately thereafter for a few months while being completely rebuilt, all five runways have been operational only since November. Even with the flight restrictions lifted, ORD will probably trail ATL until future runway 9L (far north runway) is completed. Capacity is key here as 9L will allow ORD to handle trimultaneous operations like ATL is doing at the moment. That's still a couple of years off at the earliest.