Commercial Airliner Cargo Ops.
 

It seems as cargo operations at ORD continue to grow. I’ve seen many commercial planes that have been used for cargo only over the last year at ORD. So now, how do those same operators fill the passenger cabin with cargo? Have they now removed the seats and converted them, have they put packages in the seats with netting to keep them secure, or is largely unused? I was then wondering if this could open up new commercial airline flights, re-start suspended service, upgauge aircraft, or even increase frequencies on existing routes. I’ve seen Virgin Atlantic here, multiple Air France ops, multiple Korean Air Ops (Rockford too), Cathay, Saudi, Air Canada widebodies, Delta widebodies, and Latam.

Last few times I've flown out of O'Hare (taking the blue line) the pedestrian tunnels from the station to the terminals have been littered with homeless people. Not exactly a great first impression...

You have notify the police right away. The homeless people had to leave from airport. They are not supposed to be there. They have to clean it up the mess. It's too messy!

Rode the ATS at thanksgiving. The new cars are nice and surprisingly speedy. Tons of CDA employees and contractors around keeping an eye on it. CONRAC is nice and muuuch superior to the old outdoor lots.

According to a September presentation given by the Chicago Department of Aviation to the O'Hare Noise Commission, T5 expansion will open in mid-2022 and Delta will move to T5 in September 2022.

http://oharenoise.org/resources/pres...r-10-2021/file

The extension of runway 9R/27L is complete, and it is now open for limited use. OMP is done! What a LONG time coming.

1st airport in the world with 6 parallel runways, the central 4 of which are all over 2 miles long!

Here's the new diagram:

https://i.postimg.cc/90DF55f6/FAA-ORD-12-2-21.png
Source: https://www.airliners.net/forum/view...987e&start=800

Wow, that's awesome! I'm kinda sad it's not making bigger waves in the local news though. This is the official completion of a HUGE multi billion dollar infrastructure project that benefits not only the entire Chicago metro area, but any flyer across the country/world that has to connect through O'Hare.

Still happy to see it finally complete though. It's fun to see these mini-completions occur at O'Hare as it continues to modernize and expand. Next up is getting the Terminal 5 expansion finished.

British Airways is bringing the A380 back to Chicago beginning June 1, 2022.

“ British Airways has loaded the A380 from Heathrow to Boston, Chicago, and Washington for summer 2022.”

BA295 from June 1st: Heathrow-Chicago, 10:25-13:10, once-daily

BA294 from June 1st: Chicago-Heathrow, 17:05-06:50+1, once-daily

https://simpleflying.com/british-air...0-summer-2022/

Heck yeah! Awesome news!

I wonder if Emirates will also consider bringing the A380 to ORD because once the T5 expansion completes, there will be two A380-capable gates so theoretically both British Airways and Emirates could operate daily A380s.

I hope so! A380s won't be around forever, and I want to fly on one just once to experience it!

The Wall Street Journal posted this video piece last week regarding the redesign of O'Hare's runways.

• Video Link

I don't know how much stock people put in these, but Global Traveler named O'hare the #1 Best Airport in North America as well as the #1 Best Airport for Dining.

18th Annual GT Tested Reader Survey Awards:
https://www.globaltravelerusa.com/gl...survey-awards/

It's comical that O'Hare somehow keeps "winning" in these surveys in areas where it is very obviously not even remotely in the top 20. Are people just voting for O'Hare as a meme?

O'Hare is a great airport for the residents of Chicago but that has nothing to do with dining, shopping, or customer experience and has everything to do with excellent connectivity to the rest of the planet. The facilities themselves are not much better than a garbage dump... hence the whole ORD21 plan.

Frontera alone is good reason for O'Hare to be on this list!

Curious, why such animosity against the place (and to clarify, not you specifically, but from others who've expressed the same feelings in the forum)?

I don't have animosity towards the airport. I think the realignment of the runways has moved O'Hare to an airport that will be able to lead in more international connections moving forward. I think the multi-modal facility that opened up a few years ago is very nice, upscale, and clean (back when I would rent a car when flying into town).

With that said though, the terminals are in desperate need of upgrades and better dining options. But... as was said, ORD21 will take care of this. I flew into New Orleans last night and was pleasantly surprised by the new terminals they opened up a couple years ago. It made the O'Hare terminals look like garbage.

Because the passenger facilities at O'Hare are an embarrassment by international standards and increasingly by US standards as well. As someone who flies out of O'Hare 20-30x per year I just want and expect better. Every terminal at O'Hare needs to be razed by 2030, not just T2 as currently planned.

The problem is primarily with design. None of the terminals are designed for the needs of today. They were built in an era when people arrived shortly before departure, had meals served on board, and didn't have to go through any security checks. They just aren't big enough to even be brought up to today's standards. Concourses would all need to be doubled in width, for example, in order to add the needed dining, shopping, and lounge space to bring them up to modern standards.

O'Hare is basically a CTA station for airplanes. Modern airports are shopping malls with runways. :shrug:

ORD21 is a start but nowhere near enough.

Cheap connectivity >>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>> Dining and shopping

Vast majority of Americans: 5 stars for $100 direct flight and McDonald’s

In general ORD is not number 1 in any terminal facility category. These hyped media pieces are pure nonsense!!

That said the United terminal should not be raised as it is very nice looking and in pretty good shape now. A few of the fingers are also in pretty good shape, although narrow. Alleys also need to be widened to allow easier traffic movement, but that will come over the next few years we hope.

As much as I understand the issues the airport presents based on people's comments, to me airports are liminal spaces; it's a transitional space, you're in and you're out. Perhaps I personally just don't care about what an airport terminal can offer, but I get the frustrations...that's why I always travel very light (one bag at most), and have to be very sedated right before and during a flight due to high anxiety, so I just don't care about my surroundings..I just wanna get to my destination and back.

The new main terminal will hopefully correct a lot of the issues that people are talking about, as well as changes to T5 and even T1 (as well as connectivity between T1 and the new Global terminal).

Incidentally, has anyone seen the renderings of the new terminal design at JFK? Fuckin WOOF :yuck:

https://www.archpaper.com/2021/12/ge...ional-airport/