Also, seems like STL is becoming MDW "overflow" for southwest, which i think would be a good thing for both STL and MDW. MDW seems like the kind of airport that should only be serving Chicago.

yep.

this has been predicted for awhile, but it's now in full swing.

MDW is more or less maxed-out capacity wise. for southwest to grow and move more people through the midwest, those passengers will have to transfer at another airport, and STL, with tons of excess capacity, a supremely centralized location, and a decent O&D market in its own right, makes the most sense.


STL growth in boardings over the past 5 years:

2014: 6,108,758
2015: 6,239,231
2016: 6,793,076
2017: 7,372,805
2018: 7,822,274

the vast bulk of that growth has been on the back of southwest expansion.

El Al coming back to ORD.

https://www.chicagobusiness.com/greg...service-israel

^ nice!

ever since they left last decade, israel has been a big hole in ORD's non-stop flight inventory.

i mean, cities like boston, DC, and SF have tel aviv, so global ORD absolutely should as well.

yeah, we have a hardly used, accidentally built still basically new 9,000 foot runway that doesn't cross any other runways with an expressway tunnel under it sitting there like FEED ME! MDW gets a little tricky with the short, crossed runways in inclement weather. we'll feed everything we can internationally into ORD and give us ALL the overflow how about that.

yeah, and there's a large fully-abandoned suburban neighborhood at the end of that mostly unused runway. some bad timing with that one.

https://www.google.com/maps/place/Br...!4d-90.4115057

Yes, they already flies MIA, LAX, EWR, BOS, JFK to Tel Aviv flights. They all 787 Dreamliner. Not sure when they will starts. I think sometime in Spring or Summer 2020 during at that time.

Nice! I'm glad they came back to O'Hare again. It's been over decade now.

Is it abandoned or were there even ever houses there in the first place?

Chicago is now even more well connected. I wonder what our "hole" is now? Sydney, Singapore, Oslo or Johannesburg. Or, perhaps the return of Milan, Berlin and Moscow.

^ all of those would be solid pick-ups.

sydney might have the most cachet, if for no other reason than to claim non-stop service to all 6 inhabited continents.

i'd also really like to see buenos aires return as well.

Aren't we getting a direct flight with Air New Zealand to Aukland?

. . .

already have it.

but NZ is not the Australia mainland.

there were rumblings last year of Qantas starting ORD to Brisbane, but i don't know where that currently stands.




yes, it was once a full-fledged suburban subdivision with ~2,000 houses. now all that remains are the streets.

It's just a matter of when, not if. They have 6 more 787-9s deliveries coming towards the end of 2019 and early 2020. Two of them are almost certainly earmarked for Chicago, as they've all but confirmed. Granted things can change in a year.

Hi all,

El Al will start flight TLV-ORD in March 2020. 3x per week service.

https://www.chicagotribune.com/busin...319-story.html

https://www.flychicago.com/business/...S3_a7Z7Wsg4Mv0

Hopefully this route should be done very well.

I would love to see a direct flight to Berlin. I am hopeful that once Berlin's new airport finally *fingers crossed* opens we will see a new direct route to ORD. United already flies to FRA and MUC from Chicago, so I could see them considering the additional service to BER.

T5 expansion finally having a groundbreaking, been wondering what's been holding this up since they were projected to start last year.

https://www.nbcchicago.com/news/loca...507398821.html


Officials to Break Ground on O'Hare Airport's Terminal 5 Expansion

So, to me the most interesting line above was "...increase the space of the 25-year-old terminal..." - Wait, WHAT?!?! No no no, that can't be right. Not 25 years old. Not a quarter of a century. I was living in Chicago when they built the terminal. It must be newer than that....sigh....I am an old.

Also, it makes sense that I never understood why people talk about upgrading and enlarging Terminal 5. In my distorted view, how could such a new terminal need upgrading.

Rendering of what the T5 expansion will look like, per the Sun-Times and the Chicago Department of Aviation:

https://suntimesmedia.files.wordpres...ject.jpg?w=763

^ Damn! That's an improvement.

If I'm correct, T5 will no longer be the international terminal, but will be heavily used by Delta, right?

ORD will have two when the new T2-Global Terminal is done. Delta/Sky Team plus independents at T5. AA/Oneworld and UA/Star Alliance at new T2 with new CBP facility there to serve them. It also looks like the sterile corridors will extend in the tunnel to the new T1 satellite concourses potentially opening a large number of gates for UA/Star Alliance to use for international service.

More here: https://www.muller2.com/projects#oha...al-5-expansion

The new EL Al service is a nice add and fills a big hole. Now we need to get service back to Manchester, UK. At one point in the not so distant past, both UA and AA served MAN.

It's already been upgraded at least once. Originally it have relatively few amenities and was miles behind other INTL terminals, now there are many more retail and food options, and it is sort of place one could spend some time. The lounges tend to be pitiful - IMHO largely because many of the carriers - AA, UA, ANA, LH among others use T 1-3 for departures and have large and modern lounges there. Much of this will be fixed when One World and *Alliance get unified in the new T2.

this looks like me half way though a new town in Sim City

That is correct. Delta will be at entire T5. Once they moved from T2 to T5 in end of 2021.

Does Delta currently operate any international routes out of ORD? It seems like they could be poised to expand their international presence with the move to T5.

Nope.

but some of its skyteam alliance members do, like aeromexico, air france, alitalia, china eastern, KLM, and korean air.

and my understanding is that those skyteam members will stay with delta at T5 once it moves out there, along with the LCCs + alaska.


delta/delta connection only has flights to 8 cities from o'hare: atlanta, detroit, minneapolis, laguardia, salt lake city, seattle, cincinnati, and JFK.

though flights to boston (sept 8) and raleigh (april 2) on delta connection are being added this year.

I’ve never read any expansion of the baggage claim area. Is it in scope? I’m not sure where it’d go, unless they create an “A (existing entrance)” and a new “B” entrance. If there is no new bagge claim area, the existing space will be unmanageable until the Star and One World members can move out. Are there publishing renderings of the T5 expansion other than the one aerial?

These details, AFAIK, have yet to be revealed but a new baggage handling system/upgrades to the existing CBP facility/other land side improvements have been listed at various times. There are some renderings of the new terminal interior floating around but nothing that addresses those nuts and bolts questions.

Delta has operated for Skyteam member Air France during some winter months with a 767-300 over the years. Other than that Delta seems to have no interest in Chicago international routes and very little interest in Chicago in general. They do have Detroit and Minneapolis mini hubs, thus their reasoning.

Stop dreaming about a Delta hub at ORD as it won't happen unless somebody else leaves.

^ yeah, delta hubs the midwest thru DTW and MSP, and united and american hub the midwest thru ORD.

what's interesting to me, though, is that delta moves nearly as many people thru its two midwest hubs as united and american combined move thru ORD.

with southwest at MDW, the chicago market is already a hub for 3 of the "big 4"; a delta hub ain't happening unless american decides to leave for some reason (that seems extremely unlikely to me).

Northwest flew ORD-NRT before AA launched their own ORD-NRT flight😜. Maybe Delta will jump back in as AA is slowly getting out of ORD-Asia; just kidding. I do miss Northwest (DC10s/747s) and Delta (L1011s/767s) at ORD.

Yes, they do. They tried ORD-CDG & ORD-LHR and it didn't workout so well.

I remember the ORD-CDG route that Delta operated. It just seems like Delta could be well positioned to expand their presence at ORD considering so many of their Sky Team partners will be flying into and out of T5 with them. It would make sense that they would increase their domestic presence.

Delta announced ORD-LHR several years ago to fly their own metal on the route and replace Virgin for the winter months I believe. After being open for booking, it was closed and Delta never even flew the route. Shortly after, Virgin closed Chicago for good. This is the 2nd time Virgin has closed their ORD service. My hunch is that they'd try a 3rd time once Delta is in T5 and have added a few more domestic feeder routes. With Brexit concerns, this is several years out at the earliest.

I hope those glass jet bridges make it. And if so, they also better be present at the new T2.

Looks like Jeanne Gang's Studio ORD won the design contest for the O'Hare Global Terminal!

https://www.chicagotribune.com/busin...327-story.html

Studio Gang wins ORD contract

https://www.chicagotribune.com/busin...327-story.html

I was actually hoping they would have picked Gang for the new satellite concourses instead. Still hoping they did since I don't see any mention yet.

no way!! woohoo!!!!

opinions aside, this is so exciting!!

Just watched the video on this project, it's wayyy cooler than I thought. It's a municipal device shaped building with a six point star skylight in the middle.

Should look very nice. I liked the Calatrava best but I am sure it would have been full of problems and cost overruns. We still need a full size Calatrava design in our city. The sculpture does not count!!

The satellite concourses will be designed by the runner-up in the design contest, so it will be one of the other four groups that submitted proposals for the OGT. Not sure what their plan is for announcing the runner-up.

Hmm

My post was meant as hoping they changed their minds about splitting it now.

A private developer can pay for one.

selecting a different team for the other buildings seems like adding just another layer of complexity and bureaucracy, and at the same time sacrificing the aesthetic unity that could have come from having one team do the whole thing

i always preferred the foster proposal, but i can definitely come around to this choice

Project not to start till 2023? Wow, seems so far away timewise

They have to build the satellite terminals first so that the airlines currently in Terminal 2 have a home when that terminal is demolished and replaced. :)

I really liked how Calatrava moved the ATS to be part of the new terminals facade. Oh well, Studio ORD is fine too.