I am thrilled about this. Not that I would ever really have a need for renting a car at ORD, but the antiquated system of balkanized surface lots and endlessly roving, gas-belching mini-buses just needs to go -- if for nothing else than to be more hospitable to visitors during blizzards and bitter cold (wait, do we have winter anymore?). Not long ago I was craning my neck at LAX arrivals waiting for a Hertz shuttle and it took like a half-hour, not helped by the fact that other commercial minibuses also use the yellow livery scheme. One frequent, unified shuttle, to one indoor facility, will work great. Obviously getting the ATS out there would make it even better.

Plus, it adds a new shiny construction project at ORD -- the first new public building there in 20 years (T5, 1993) I think?

It even got creepy-boneheaded during his victory speech the other night; he was touting it as though it was the only thing between his citizens and the promised land. Can he not come up with economic stimulus ideas that don't involve pushing at windmills?
Maybe the latter will come sooner rather than later if Mr. Obama appoints him as Deputy Secretary of this-and-that, or Ambassador to New Zealand or somewhere. Isn't Yusef or one of his brothers a lot more competent than him? Have him run to fill the seat and it would be a great improvement. Anyway, not to get political.

The first ground-up building in awhile, yea. There have been minor terminal expansions and so forth, plus the huge canopy-and-stairs project that cost nearly 400 million dollars.

The RFP that came out a few years ago showed garages that looked very similar to the massive ones on the north side of Midway. I'll be interested to see what these look like.

ardecila, where did you find that image? I've been trying to find more visual info on this for a while; maybe my Google-fu is slipping...

This -- and the western terminal complex -- is the piece of the puzzle I'm most interested in, since the Elgin O'Hare as-built looks like it was designed to carry another lane in each direction. You can see that most notably at Meacham Rd: http://g.co/maps/4ktpb

And it's interesting to note that even without the proposed bypass, the new UP alignment over Irving Park Rd. will significantly reduce travel times from Bensenville to Schiller Park along that stretch. The overpass has already been constructed, but the new tracks aren't live as of this past weekend. When I lived out that way a few years ago, I always used Irving Park/Mannheim to get to O'Hare. Lots of times I wished I didn't have to deal with that occasional slow-moving freight train... ;)

The linework is from the EIS for the West Bypass project. I took it into Illustrator and deleted some unneeded layers, then I overlayed it on an aerial. It only took about 5 minutes.

Better you than me. There are times when I loathe Illustrator :rolleyes: ...but thanks for taking the time to do that; it's great to have that extra layer of info via the aerial.

Interesting aircraft sitting over at the UAL hangar, a United Airlines Charter 747-400. I did not know United was getting into dedicated charter services.

Gary Airport
 

..more in link

Hopefully the runway expansion will mean Gary can actually get some regular service...

LOT Polish Airlines will likely offer O'Hare's first Dreamliner flight
 

LOT Polish Airlines will likely offer O'Hare's first Dreamliner flight

By Gregory Karp
Chicago Tribune
March 28, 2012

"LOT Polish Airlines is the first airline to announce that it will offer a Chicago O'Hare flight aboard a revolutionary Boeing 787 Dreamliner aircraft.

LOT will begin service in January 2013 between Chicago and Warsaw, Poland, its CEO said Wednesday at a news conference in Chicago. "Chicago is our biggest market, not only in the U.S. but worldwide," said LOT Polish Airlines CEO Marcin Pirog. Last year, the airline flew 160,000 passengers between Chicago and Warsaw, he said.

O'Hare's most dominant airline, United Airlines, is scheduled to take delivery of a 787 slightly earlier -- scheduled for the second half of this year -- and would "likely" use a 787 on routes through Chicago, possibly as soon as the fourth quarter of this year, spokeswoman Mary Ryan said. However, United hasn't announced a flight schedule for the aircraft..."

http://www.chicagotribune.com/busine...,2933248.story

^ Interesting that Chicago is their biggest market. 160,000 yearly passengers is 438 per day, enough for a 747, not that they have them or that it would be a smart business move.

I also bet we'll see a United 787 in Chicago first. Although this might still be the first international 787 service. United will probably use it on hub-hub domestic routes at first for training purposes, like ANA is doing.

Chicago is one of the largest centers of the Polish diaspora.

I know that, it still seems odd that such a long route would be their biggest market. You would think Warsaw to London for example would be bigger since it's much closer. I suppose it depends on what he means by 'biggest market'- revenue? passengers? profit?. I was under the assumption it was passengers but that seems off.

THE largest center.

There are more Poles in Chicago than in any other city on Earth except Warsaw. It would only make sense that the two largest concentrations of Polish people on the planet would be the biggest route for a Polish airline...

Yes, Allegiant Air will start flying from GYY once the runway extension is completed.

This is a common trope, but it's also a really really old one. If it was true at one point 80 years ago, I doubt it still is.

Chicago has lots of people who are descended from Polish immigrants (I'm one of them) but many of us are not really Polish culturally, outside of a few random traditions, and have little reason to visit the old country.

This is not to belittle all the recent Polish immigrants that populate the Northwest/Southwest Sides, but that wave of immigration is dwarfed by the previous one, whose descendants have all pretty much Americanized fully.

Is this a fact? The rail removal and runway extension will not be completed for several years. Did the airline sign a contract and make a commitment to fly out of GYY in 2014? 2015?

Allegiant has already started flying out of GYY with twice weekly flights to MCO. The flights seem to be popular but whether or not they are profitable is a different matter entirely. If you mean do they have a long term commitment with the airport to provide service two three years from now, I do not know. Allegiant is not exactly known for keeping disappointing routes open for long. They did extend booking through the end of the year though.

I suspect it is still true... Most of the original wave of Post WWII poles are still alive and more have joined them since the fall of communism.

I believe the first 787 to be received by United was ordered by then-Continental, and their plan (even well after the merger) was to use it out of the Houston hub to Auckland NZ. Assuming that hasn't changed, a Chicago 787 might not be a domestic-only route. Roughly speaking the 787 is replacing 767-class aircraft, and my impression is that at ORD, 767s tend to go medium-haul to Europe or Hawaii, and not domestically in the lower 48 (though they might also be used medium-haul on coast-to-coast domestic routes). It would make sense to run the Chicago 787 on lucrative routes to 1st-tier European cities or 2nd-tier (or already-served 1st-tier) Asian cities.

You're right it's strange that LOT's "biggest market" would be Chicago, considering Poles presumably have lots of business and holiday travel to London, the Mediterranean, not to mention places in Germany or other adjacent countries. However, it turns out LOT is really a comparitively small airline, and behemoths like ever-growing Lufthansa (which acquired Swiss, etc) next door are not helping that situation.