I agree the current rental car situation is a disaster. But the walk to the CTA isn't too bad. Now midway....that's a different story. All the twisting corridors you have to go down is unacceptable. There needs to be a more direct pathway to TSA and ticketing.

^ Hayward, respond to 2 year old posts much? ;) (It's still relevant, so n/m.)

That indeed is big news - how often does any city entirely reroute and improve 1.5 miles of a major artery. Plus, giant airport projects like this can often run into all kinds of problems (like years of lawsuits from local residents, ahem, or unexpected gravesites, etc.) when doing acquisition and repurposing of land parcels. So this is indeed a major hurdle cleared - I can almost taste the far south runway now! I look forward to the first Google/Microsoft/etc. internet map with satellite views of the progress.

A closer look at recently unveiled plans for the redevelopment of Terminal 5, courtesy of Chicago Aviation's YouTube page. The video is very well put together (if you don't mind corny background music, that is ;)): http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zp_sr...hannel&list=UL

More content related to T5 can be found here: http://www.chicagot5.com/

Also, the I-190 entry and exit resurfacing/rehab project is moving ahead for a targeted final completion date of November 15: http://flychicago.com/PDF/Announceme...ab_project.pdf

Wow, that runway must taste weird.

Here's a list of the recent/upcoming changes in international flights from ORD. Not all of these have been formally announced yet.

Seoul: Korean Air reduces frequency to 7x weekly, but upgauges to 747 replacing 777.

Seoul: Asiana increasing frequency to 7x weekly, offsetting Korean Air reduction.

Berlin: Air Berlin starting service to Berlin-Tegel @ 4x weekly.

Beijing: Hainan Airlines to begin 5x weekly service with A340-600.

Doha: Qatar Airways to begin daily flights using 777-300ER equipment.

Vienna: Austrian Airlines to begin daily service using 777s.

Dusseldorf: American Airlines to begin daily service.

Tokyo: All Nippon adding a 2nd daily flight.

Dublin: Aer Lingus adding an additional 4x weekly flights, bringing total to 11x weekly.

Dubai: Emirates to begin daily service.

Where these flights will operate from is still up in the air as widebody gate space is very limited. Terminal 5 is at peak capacity during primetime for the European bank of flights (afternoon-evening). AA and UA may need to let their partners use widebody gate space at T1 and T3. Whether they are willing to do that, or even have any free space themselves, is still up in the air as well.

I was thwarted in my attempts to get before and after pics from the side of Irving Park - they MOVED the f---n road. New one is very nice, old one is being removed now.

I've never seen any evidence of Emirates coming to ORD. Where did you get this information? Or, for that matter, anything about Austrian.

Source is a guy that works at O'Hare and is privy to flight schedules and gate allocations. (airlines have to plan that far in advance, especially when gate space is so tight)

The Austrian Airlines flight isn't coming out of the blue:
http://www.austriantimes.at/news/Bus...ines_expanding

Emirates is well, Emirates. It's always been a matter of when, not if.

I have to drop my fiance off at O'Hare next Thursday, I'll see if I can manage to snap some pics then. I have to agree though -- the new road is very nice. :cool:

Until then, enjoy ye old Irving Park Rd. circa 2007 via Google Street View: http://goo.gl/maps/KShoC

Where did you hear this? Is EK will start nonstop flight ORD-DXB? I don't see a real official release. I don't have a source of this.

11 - 04
 

Old rail overpass over Irving


Old Irving


New Irving


Work continues

About here - ( July 2009 )


Bensionville 2009

Crain's today reported that the CONRAC/rental garage has a price tag of $765 million. This includes $340 million for the people-mover extension and $400 million for the garage.

Is it just me, or do these prices seem 4x higher than they should be?

^ Funny how each of us has that reaction at different times for different transit related projects. My uneducated opinion would be that, with CONRAC's maze of various access ramp and flyover connections, fuel storage tanks, and other facilities needed for washing and maintenance of thousands of vehicles, it's at least in the right order of magnitude. As for the ATS ... I agree (though, what if it includes rolling stock?).

That's "ye olde" Irving Park. Also - congratulations to you both!

Is it safe to assume DXB, or do they have any minihub somewhere in Europe, in the way that, say, HKG or HNL serve as defacto minihubs for UA?

Apparently it does.

http://articles.chicagotribune.com/2...transit-system

The article is a bit dated but it says the city plans to purchase 24 new ATS cars, probably a total replacement of the fleet plus some extra to allow for higher frequency.

I hope the new ones will be a little more streamlined.

the price tag seems high
also the metro/depot not as good
as the new one in miami.

Here's an odd one.... probably wont materialize.

BH Air is applying to the US DOT for the rights to fly 3x weekly from Sofia, Bulgaria to JFK and ORD with the routing SOF-JFK-ORD-SOF.

Why odd? Chicago has the largest Bulgarian population in the US.

Because it's a long-haul low-yielding route from an obscure airline.

In other news, Orbitz.com projects ORD to be the busiest US airport during the Thanksgiving holiday, LAX second. (LAX was first last year)

[QUOTE=Kippis;5889314]A closer look at recently unveiled plans for the redevelopment of Terminal 5, courtesy of Chicago Aviation's YouTube page. The video is very well put together (if you don't mind corny background music, that is ;)): http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zp_sr...hannel&list=UL

More content related to T5 can be found here: http://www.chicagot5.com/

So what it tells us is that T-5 is being renovated into an even bigger mid- and upscale shopping mall. BIG WHOOP. What BS

Looks like 2013 will be a busy year at ORD. I have been watching the UA 787 this week come in. It already swapped out to a 767 due to technical problems on I think 2 days. Here is the schedule:


UA1553 IAHORD 720A 951A 788
UA1510 ORDIAH 1121A 206P 788