Yes, AA. There is some gate swappage going on too. I think Alaska/Jet Blue are heading to the G concourse of T3 but it looks like their ticketing and baggage might be handled out of T2. I imagine they'll eventually move to T5 when that expansion is complete.

AA can squeeze more Eagle ops out of the odd side of the L concourse than the gates they'll give up in G.

Curious, how will they allow all Frontier passengers to exit normally without having to go through the customs area? Will they just change the deboarding and have them all exit on the 2nd level or "departures" as terminal 5 is set up, as opposed to the 1st level for arrivals and customs? How do they get from that area in departures down to the baggage claim? You can't exit to the common area of terminal 5 and then come back into the baggage claim area, and typically you can't leave the baggage area of terminal 5 without your customs declaration sheet.

Yes, passengers exit to the terminal upper level instead of the lower level halls to CBP.

T5 has a domestic baggage claim outside the CBP facility.

https://www.bizjournals.com/chicago/...-gets-big.html




United Airlines' investment in biofuels gets big boost this week


By Lewis Lazare
– Reporter, Chicago Business Journal

4 hours ago


United Airlines has for several years trumpeted its belief in developing environmentally-friendly biofuels and its determination to be in the forefront of using biofuels to power its fleet of hundreds of jet aircraft.

Toward that end, the carrier was one of only two airlines (the other being Cathay Pacific) to become minority investors in Fulcrum BioEnergy.

On Wednesday, Fulcrum broke ground in Reno, Nevada on the first of several plants the company intends to build that will convert landfill and household garbage into renewable low-carbon fuel for jets.

That Reno plant is expected to come on line in early 2020. When fully operational, the it will covert approximately 175,000 tons of household garbage into more than 10.5 million gallons of biofuel each year.

When United announced its investment in Fulcrum in 2015, the carrier said the plan was for the biofuel company to construct future plants near some of United’s key hub airports.

Now sources are reporting that Chicago, where United has its largest hub at O’Hare International Airport, might be where Fulcrum comes to build out one of its first additional biofuel production facilities after Reno.

A United spokesman would not confirm Fulcrum’s game plan, but suggested an announcement about future Fulcrum plants could be forthcoming.

...

I had a suspicion this may happen, glad I was right:

City launches international design competition for O'Hare


http://www.chicagobusiness.com/artic...gn-competition

Great news. This is probably the most important project in the city in terms of architecture. It has to be done right.

AWESOME.

I hope the design theme extends all the way through the concourses, and not just the roadway facing terminal building.
Like the Madrid airport concourses:
https://www.designbuild-network.com/...as-airport.jpg

Not saying a red mustache looks good, just that the design is carried over from the main terminal.
Hope there's money to compete with the Singapore's and Dubai's, not just LAX or DEN.

^ That depends who competes and what the terms of the competition are. A lot of times the competition isn't really a design competition, it's a competitive bidding process for design/build services where each team hires a different architect and they all compete on several factors (like cost) that often put the design in a backseat role.

If it is a pure design competition where architects themselves are the leads, and the competition is open to all reasonable/qualified entries, then we can guess some of the architects who might submit. I assume Helmut Jahn will submit something, O'Hare terminals are kind of his thing. Probably also something from Cesar Pelli, and maybe Fentress or SOM. Those are the Americans. We might get some Brits like Norman Foster or Richard Rogers also. I would love a Calatrava airport, but I don't think anyone in the US will ever hire him again to do transport facilities after the epic WTC fail.

TBH the current T1 and the landside areas for T2 and T3 are already world-class after the most recent round of Helmut Jahn/Werner Sobek renovations a decade ago. Very minimalist and sleek but the details are carefully planned and elegant AF.

T1 could use a significant renovation, parts of it are looking very tired. The small army of buckets catching leaks from the glass does not make a good impression.

Landside T2/T3 are indeed pretty good but I'm annoyed to no end that the overhead lighting in the, very expensive, canopy is like 1/2 to 3/4ths burned out and left that way.

A new roof for T1 is part of the plan. A good cleaning would do wonders as well.

Ethiopian Airlines first 787 flight today at O'Hare. It was a few days later than originally planned.

Very nice. Hopefully this route should be done very well. It will be so successful flight.

Chicago Becomes Only American City Offering Service to All Continents
Source:https://www.flyertalk.com/articles/c...ontinents.html

Sounds like these could all be addressed with proper maintenance, no? Not an indicator of bad architecture.

Admittedly I haven't seen the leaking at T1 but it may just be certain components reaching the end of their lifespan.

I have no gripe with the architecture landside at T2/T3 unless that wasn't clear. Hopefully they can integrate at least some of it with the T2 replacement.

T1 has had leak issues for many years unfortunately. Hopefully they can get the fixed for the long term.

Looks like the Tollway and CP are closing in on a deal to route over their yard for the Elgin-O'Hare western access/bypass.

Tollway close to deal on land to build O'Hare ring road

http://www.dailyherald.com/news/2018...hare-ring-road

Glad to see this is finally happening. The Tollway and CP have been requesting 30-day extensions of their case from the Surface Transportation Board in Washington for over a year.

No mention of what the terms of the deal are, though, or how the Tollway will address CP's concerns... based on early maps it does seem like the new ring road will basically eviscerate CP's yard facilities in Bensenville, not the tracks themselves but the landside areas for trucking. Based on a Crain's article it sounds like the Tollway will have to agree to purchase additional land to replace CP's lost acreage, so I guess Victory Auto Wreckers' days are numbered.

What is the purpose of the Elgin-O'Hare western access/bypass? The Elgin Expressway ends near Hawk Hollow wilderness and Mallard lake, doesn't seem like much of a destination for an expressway. Are they going to also build a tunnel to get from this expressway to the terminals?

In the short term, provides better truck access to Elk Grove which is one of Chicagoland’s biggest industrial clusters. In the long term, it will enable a western terminal complex at O’Hare with checkins and a people mover to the east side.

Some of the long term options included a tunnel which would connect 390 and 190 underneath new concourses.

As for the west end of 390, IDOT has some proposals for an at-grade highway extension. I'm of the opinion that the US 20 should be upgraded to an expressway between the Elgin Expwy and 390, but it seems that IDOT doesn't think it is worth the expense.