Very last AA system flight for the MD-80 will be flight #80 from DFW to ORD on September 4th. Then it will get ferried to Roswell New Mexico.

http://news.aa.com/news/news-details...s/default.aspx

^ a fitting end for a bird that saw LOTS of action with AA at ORD and DFW over the decades.

this will leave delta as the last major US operator of MD-80/90, and with delta's minimal presence at ORD, we won't be seeing nearly as many of them anymore.

oh well, it's for the best really. i know many will get nostalgic for the aircraft, but i always though they were obscenely noisy anywhere near the rear of the plane.

4L-22R should really be moved to the top (NW) corner of the airport grounds, intersecting 9L-27R. Then you could do the mid field concourses right. It would also free up tons of land for more cargo/hangar space to the north of the terminals.

That's a lot of money to spend for a slightly more optimal concourse alignment. If the airport needs more cargo space, which they won't for a long while probably when Aeroterm's phase 3 is done, they can push east to Bessie Coleman instead where CDA is now and use up Parking G.

Thanks for your info. Please posts a construction photos. We would like to see it.

When flying out of T5 last week, it seemed as if the terminal expansion itself had not broken ground. There was a lot of construction on the surrounding tarmac though, so I assume they're expanding/moving around the tarmac before they start on the structure itself.

I'd imagine they would have a hard time giving up coveted T5 gate space during the busy summer season as well.

The infrastructure part is easy - they'll just route you on another endless loop that will take you to Wisconsin and back.

Assuming it will be scrapped, they could sell tickets for people to have a whack at it with an acetylene torch. I'd pay good money to play a small part it it's demise. It was a red eye from LAS to ORD that put me over the edge and into the arms of an airline that didn't fly the Mad Dog.

I really miss these planes due to their 2-3 seating. Too bad they could not have been re-engined economically. I'm more inclined to fly Delta these days since they still have a bunch of 717s and now the A220 (former CSeries) is reaching the fleet. I've spent WAY too much time in 737s (and the MAXes are supremely uncomfortable) to have much fondness for them.

Yeah, the MD-80 was an excellent airplane, what's the issue? I just flew on one in Hawaii again last summer. I love how they basically take off 90 degrees to the ground.

The best was Midwest Express (which is apparently about to make a comeback as a new airline) which outfitted MD-80's in a private jet like 2-2 seating configuration of all leather ultra comfy first class seats. There was nothing like being able to fly direct from Milwaukee to anywhere in the continental US like that.

Image of the MD-80 not sucking:

https://imgproc.airliners.net/photos...5471.jpg?v=v40
airliners.net

The JT8D engines on the MD-80 are very inefficient and offer poor performance compared to modern options. Also IIRC they exceed noise thresholds increasingly in place at airports. American had looked at a re-engine program but decided to buy new aircraft instead (737s).

If you were in Hawaii you were probably on a 717 (MD-95) which while visually very similar to the MD-80 is of a different size and performance level. 717s are extremely popular these days and it's too bad bad timing and corporate interests (to sell more 737s) at Boeing killed the line. The market has been without an efficent flexible 100 seat aircraft for decades until the CSeries that now belongs to Airbus as the A220.

new news.

it's an all-chicago team, Studio Gang & SOM.



source: https://www.chicagotribune.com/colum...jre-story.html

If this is the model for the concourse I'm not overly excited but I wouldn't say I'm put out either. Hope they went back to the drawing board a bit after they lost out on the global terminal. Also I'm just glad they weren't the ones to win the global terminal as it was clearly my least favorite.

via curbed Chicago....
https://cdn.vox-cdn.com/thumbor/U4Y-...iOS__86_.0.jpg

That definitely looks like their model for the global terminal.

I realize that those designs are preliminary, but is there some rule that every airport concourse in Chicago has to have stupid little arms hanging off it at one end or both. What's wrong with one beautiful streamlined building. I guess the ORD C concourse as built comes close.

It's official, Qantas starts 4x weekly service between Brisbane and O'Hare on April 20, 2020!

The 17 hour flight will be the 4th longest in the world.

This will give ORD non-stop service to all 6 inhabitted continents.

https://www.ausbt.com.au/qantas-laun..._campaign=news

We already have service to NZ (which greatly facilitates deployment to the 7th continent, since ORD->AKL->CHC-MCM is pretty easy, as far as getting to Antarctica goes...).

Nice! I am not looking forward to sit on the plane for 17 hours. That's too much! Instead, I definitely will try to fly nonstop from LAX-SIN or SYD in near the future.

Pretty scathing long article about the history and never ever development of O'Hare,
.......

^ let's hope Lori can bring some of her light up the Kennedy out to ORD.

A little off topic but if you really love aviation and since it's so close you should try to get up the EAA AirVenture event up at Oshkosh Wisconsin. I just came back and am always amazed at how good an airshow it is. So many people come in from Europe and South America via Chicago for this Airshow. I even ran into a group of 140 people who came all the way from South Africa on SAA to Amsterdam and then on to Chicago on KLM. They are all also staying in Chicago and as usual they all say they absolutely love downtown Chicago and hate O'Hare's international terminal. They are always happy to hear O'Hare is getting a new 8 billion dollar terminal.

I tried to read it, but the combination of white type on a black background and a series of misleading statements in the opening paragraphs caused me to give up.

It even twists words to make it sound like the people moved never opened.

And, no, Terminal 4 wasn't used for just a few years and then scrapped. It was intended from the beginning to be temporary!

Next.

American is adding three new international routes next summer -

Chicago - Krakow (5x weekly)
Chicago - Budapest (5x weekly)
Chicago - Prague (4x weekly)

Krakow and Budapest are not new routes for Chicago (LOT serves both), but Prague will be. AA now serves more destinations from Chicago to Europe than UA, however all but London are during the summer only, whereas UA flies the majority of theirs year-round.

^ even though they're just seasonal routes, it's good to see AA expanding international service at ORD once again.

AA keeps throwing summer routes out there to see what sticks. UA has a more long-term strategy with ORD. On the flip side AA does use brand new 787 8's and 9's. UA uses antique 777-200's and 767-300's on international routes and leaves all the brand new aircraft to the coastal routes.

WHY?

WON'T?

IT?

DIE?





source: https://www.chicagotribune.com/busin...z6u-story.html

Given that Will County is the nation's largest inland port, I think it might be a good idea to have an airport down that way

seems stupid to me, Rockford already handles a lot of ecommerce, just keep using that and maybe help out Gary.....our state does not have the money for this.

The answer to that question remains the same "no, it does NOT need another airport". Haven't the airlines repeatedly said that they wouldn't fly there? I guess they need to compete with MidAmerica airport - remember that?

United 787 Dreamliner regular service finally for ORD in 2020. It took long enough as all the other UAL major international hubs have had them for several years now.
They only send the 787's or 777-300's into Chicago now when they get a new aircraft type to show off to the corporate leadership :D



https://www.bizjournals.com/chicago/...o-service.html

Back in 2012 United was flying the 787 between various cities for non regular scheduled test flights and I booked a flight between ORD and IAH. . . I was bumped up to first class as well which was pretty cool. . . it was the only time I've flown a 787 and have flown over 130 flights since then out of Chicago. . .

. . .

Did United announce which version of the 787 will be flown to Frankfurt, Munich and Brussels? With LH hubs, I wouldn't think they'd want to reduce capacity to the German cities. Does that translate to United deploying the 787-10 to Frankfurt and Munich? Depending on the season, Brussels had switched between the 763 and the 772. I love seeing larger aircraft at ORD, but it seems like a route for less than demand that the other two even if a smaller Star Hub.

Last S-80 out of Ohare today for American
https://scontent-ort2-2.xx.fbcdn.net...8a&oe=5E11BA01

I know delta still has a bunch of MD-80/90s in its fleet, but does anyone know if they fly any of them to ORD?

if not, that might be the last mainline T-tail to ever operate at ORD.

but man, what a run the MD-80 had at ORD with AA for the last 4 decades.

That really is an end to an era. A bit like the MD-10 commercial service went the way of the Do-do.

Delta's 717s should still be around for awhile. I'm sure they're frequent visitors at ORD.

^ oh yeah, I forgot about those. Delta has a fair number of 717's and they almost certainly still operate them out of ORD, and will likely do so for many years to come.

Thanks for the correction.

Anyone have any updates on construction?

They were working on tearing up part of the tarmac near T-5, but I don't see any actual work being done on T-5 itself.

Also, saw an article that they were going to get a jump on digging the tunnel for the new satellite terminals.

I don't know the answer, but it seems like the T-5 expansion has been in the works for years now and seems to have slowed once the ORD 21 program was put on the table. I might be wrong, but that's my perception. There were articles written in March this year that stated ground was broken on the T5 expansion for what's it worth.

What will happen to gates M19-21 during the expansion? Will temporary jet bridges be used so the concourse doesn't lose three key gates during construction.

Getting caught up on this thread. I had no idea Peotone was still a thing. The article mentioned potential e-commerce as a reason for renewed interest. Uhh, sorry, the e-commerce industry has already spoken and they’ve invested heavily in RFD.

https://www.dhbusinessledger.com/bus...argo-shipments

..

Nevermind

What does community outreach have to do with airport design? And why would we want it anyway?

I kind of agree.

This trend to have community meetings about everything seems to have kind of reached new highs. Why not trust the experts?

Look at the UK when you leave important decisions up to the masses. It leads to disaster.

I think this is less than most people think. Gang and co will listen to what people have to say but ultimately the design decisions are up to them and the client. It's more the illusion of community involvement than anything.

Air X Charter Ltd A340 on the ORD ramp Thursday. Not sure what kind of executive charter it was....

I don't like the design they chose. The woodsy feeling, the flooring, the central atrium that looks church-like, just no. Whole thing looks like a 90's mall. I hope they change the entire thing because it is just a second-rate design compared to airport terminals going up today globally. Would have gone with Foster or Calatrava myself, they had far more contemporary designs than this thing and are experienced. However, it seems they went with the local firm because of home-town bias probably.

I don't know. I was just in several Charles De Gaulle terminals this week--several only a few years old--and the most important thing is how they flow and work logisitically. The Calatrava design looked impressive, but I don't know if it would work as well. Can you get from gate to gate easily? Can you move freely while still not feeling like you're sitting in a cavern? Can you see where you need to go without having to look at signs constantly and still not feel like you are sitting in a cavern.

I think this thread is overestimating the sort of changes being proposed. It sounds like they're going to the community to ask about what they want for passenger facilities and indoor decor, not a wholesale redesign of the building. Which is perfectly reasonable. They've got 10 years to adapt to changing tastes.

Although architects liked the look of the Foster design, I heard from my brother who works in airport operations and from some other sources that the Gang proposal was far superior from the airport operations point of view.

https://mobile.twitter.com/JGMA_arch...87750993616898
Small, hard-to-find, airside connections between terminals, orphaned gates, and concourse gates too far from amenities, a theater for passengers instead of a flexible ground space for airfield and baggage equipment, and so on.

There were fundamental design flaws in the Foster proposal, whereas the suggested fixes to the Gang proposal were easy. Get rid of the plants and trees (bugs, rats and maintenance nightmares), questionable skylight, improve the concessions and possibly change the aesthetics.