CHICAGO: ORD & MDW discussion

[Kngkyle]

....But she spoke in terms of not only new gates but whole new concourses and said she expects to hammer out that deal by yearend.

The airport has enough demand from carriers for another 2,100 linear feet of terminal (likely enough for several gates), Evans contended. "All of the carriers want more gates. United, American, Spirit, JetBlue. There's no question about it."

2,100 linear feet is about the size of Concourse B in Terminal 1 which has 22 gates.

Also, the FY 2015 O'Hare traffic numbers are in and amount to 76.9 million passengers, an increase of 10% over the year prior.

[Steely Dan]

Originally Posted by Kngkyle

Also, the FY 2015 O'Hare traffic numbers are in and amount to 76.9 million passengers, an increase of 10% over the year prior.

wow, a 10% jump in one year, that's significant.

[Kngkyle]

Originally Posted by Steely Dan

wow, a 10% jump in one year, that's significant.

The actual number of takeoffs/landings is actually down compared to 2014, so this growth is pretty much entirely from AA/UA retiring the small 50-seat regional jets in favor of bigger planes. They both recently stated that they plan to continue phasing them out systemwide over the next few years, so the growth should continue. ORD suffered the most when the use of small RJs became popular and now stands to benefit the most from the reversal of that strategy.

I dare say that 100 million is within the realm of possibility by 2020 given that another new runway will be operational and new gates will likely be coming online around then.

[Steely Dan]

Originally Posted by Kngkyle

so this growth is pretty much entirely from AA/UA retiring the small 50-seat regional jets in favor of bigger planes.

a trend i'm sure we're all thankful for.

do you know where to find FY 2015 passenger numbers for other US airports? i'm curious to know if ORD's big jump allowed it to leapfrog LAX back into the #2 spot.

[Kngkyle]

Originally Posted by Steely Dan

a trend i'm sure we're all thankful for.

do you know where to find FY 2015 passenger numbers for other US airports? i'm curious to know if ORD's big jump allowed it to leapfrog LAX back into the #2 spot.

I haven't seen a ranking of all the airports yet, however LAX does have their FY 2015 numbers on their website. http://www.lawa.org/uploadedfiles/LAX/statistics/tcom-1215.pdf

74,936,256, an increase of 6.05%. So yes, ORD did pass LAX again and grew about 4% faster.

[F1 Tommy]

Good to see the article on more gates and the deice pad. I wonder what runway configuration they will use during a deice event. During heavy snow it will make operations possible at ORD. They only get 25 minutes to get deiced and off the ground so it is almost impossible to do now at ORD. So if the pad is on the west side of the airfield they will have to get on a east bound runway. It will also allow tactile checks near the departure runway.

[nomarandlee]

I'm curious where they will put the new hotels. I'm guessing and kind of hoping that one or both will be right next to and interconnected with the new rental car facility/ATS. It would be awesome to have something akin one day to the Frankfurt Airport Train Station with the Hilton up above.

[k1052]

Originally Posted by nomarandlee

I'm curious where they will put the new hotels. I'm guessing and kind of hoping that one or both will be right next to and interconnected with the new rental car facility/ATS. It would be awesome to have something akin one day to the Frankfurt Airport Train Station with the Hilton up above.

The surface parking lot at T5 also looks mighty attractive as 32R is decommissioned.

[kbud]

I wonder what will become of the rental car real estate once the new garage goes in. I can't imagine that you could put any substantial hotels there with the landing approach to the current and new runway.

I was also perplexed with the new freight terminal going in that area as well. I would have thought it would be in the way for approaches and takeoffs for the new runway. Is there a new layout anywhere that has the new freight terminal and the new runway?

[k1052]

Originally Posted by kbud

I wonder what will become of the rental car real estate once the new garage goes in. I can't imagine that you could put any substantial hotels there with the landing approach to the current and new runway.

I was also perplexed with the new freight terminal going in that area as well. I would have thought it would be in the way for approaches and takeoffs for the new runway. Is there a new layout anywhere that has the new freight terminal and the new runway?

Surface parking I imagine...though part of the southern end of it might be out of the runway protection zone.

The Aeroterm cargo facility will be to the north of the new runway, not to the east of it.

[k1052]

Emanuel strikes deal with American Airlines for new O'Hare gates

http://chicago.suntimes.com/news/7/71/13...s-deal-american-airlines-new-ohare-gates

5 gate L concourse expansion for AA, operational in 2018.

[N830MH]

Originally Posted by k1052

Emanuel strikes deal with American Airlines for new O'Hare gates

http://chicago.suntimes.com/news/7/71/13...s-deal-american-airlines-new-ohare-gates

5 gate L concourse expansion for AA, operational in 2018.

Awesome!! Hopefully they will build a new terminal 4 & 6, as well as new west terminal.

Here's ORD master plan:

http://www.ohare.com/masterplan/Section%20VI%20-%20Preferred%20Development%20Plan%20-%209.pdf

http://www.ohare.com/masterplan/Section%20VI%20-%20Preferred%20Development%20Plan%20-%202.pdf

[kbud]

Originally Posted by N830MH

Awesome!! Hopefully they will build a new terminal 4 & 6, as well as new west terminal.

Here's ORD master plan:

http://www.ohare.com/masterplan/Section%20VI%20-%20Preferred%20Development%20Plan%20-%209.pdf

http://www.ohare.com/masterplan/Section%20VI%20-%20Preferred%20Development%20Plan%20-%202.pdf

I'd love to see this materialize, but this was drafted over 15 years ago with not one terminal being added or seriously talked about since. It is nice to see AA add gates, but I can't understand where these gates will go unless they just add more regional gates in L (yippee), but that would strap AA/One World even more for widebody equipped gates. I sure hope that they somehow strike a deal with AA and UA to add a T-4, T-6 and a revamped T-2. I don't know why everyone is infatuated with a western terminal when adding the above would go far beyond the gate needs for a decade to come.

[k1052]

O'Hare finally catching up with rivals in jumbo-jet space race

The city's Department of Aviation yesterday pulled a permit to build out one gate that could handle an Airbus A380 plane, in Terminal 5 at O'Hare, according to the city's permits website.

Like other gates in Terminal 5, the international section at the airport, the A380 gate will be designated as "common use," meaning no specific airline will have exclusive control over it, according to a person familiar with the project.

Two firms—Emirates and British Airways—have expressed interest in using their A380s on routes involving O'Hare, the person said, though which routes would get the A380s couldn't be determined. The gate is expected to be operational by late summer.

http://www.chicagobusiness.com/article/2...-getting-gate-for-massive-a380-airplanes

[denizen467]

So was Andolino just lousy at convincing people the A380 was necessary? Ginger shows up and a few months later it's done. (Along with all the other huge announcements recently.) This is not a huge dollar item.

But gate capability was not the only hurdle to ORD handling an A380 -- taxiway widening was originally said to be necessary as well. Has that been performed? Or is the completion of the 2013 runway, which results in 2 long/heavy east-west runways practically adjacent to T5, enough for now?

[F1 Tommy]

Originally Posted by denizen467

So was Andolino just lousy at convincing people the A380 was necessary? Ginger shows up and a few months later it's done. (Along with all the other huge announcements recently.) This is not a huge dollar item.

But gate capability was not the only hurdle to ORD handling an A380 -- taxiway widening was originally said to be necessary as well. Has that been performed? Or is the completion of the 2013 runway, which results in 2 long/heavy east-west runways practically adjacent to T5, enough for now?

They have been flying cargo 747-8's into O'hare for several years. The cargo 747-8 version is longer than an A380. It will have taxiway restrictions but it can be done. N0 gates available make it not possible.

[k1052]

Originally Posted by denizen467

So was Andolino just lousy at convincing people the A380 was necessary? Ginger shows up and a few months later it's done. (Along with all the other huge announcements recently.) This is not a huge dollar item.

They'd been looking at this for a couple years IIRC. I can only assume it wasn't considered a priority for whatever reason. While I think it's important that ORD have a couple gates that can accommodate A380s we're going to be needing a lot more wide body gates in the near future for the loads of 777/787/A330/A350s being sold.

[denizen467]

Originally Posted by k1052

They'd been looking at this for a couple years IIRC. I can only assume it wasn't considered a priority for whatever reason. While I think it's important that ORD have a couple gates that can accommodate A380s we're going to be needing a lot more wide body gates in the near future for the loads of 777/787/A330/A350s being sold.

How are you using the term widebody gate here? I assume you don't mean dual jetbridges (because that would just suggest A380 compatibility; plus, ORD usually seems ok using a single jetbridge on 777 despite dual jetbridge use at some other airports)? Do you mean just gates with larger aprons that can fit 777-9 length and width, plus large holdrooms?

[k1052]

Originally Posted by denizen467

How are you using the term widebody gate here? I assume you don't mean dual jetbridges (because that would just suggest A380 compatibility; plus, ORD usually seems ok using a single jetbridge on 777 despite dual jetbridge use at some other airports)? Do you mean just gates with larger aprons that can fit 777-9 length and width, plus large holdrooms?

I should have been clearer, single jet bridge gates usable for for group IV and V aircraft. The A380 will be of some (probably minor) importance for a while but the future is cloudy as sales continue to languish ...especially compared to the modern twin jets that are filling order books.

[LaSalle.St.Station]

Another revenue stream that could be opened up at both airports in order to build gates an express trains, is making the access road to the terminal departure and arrival zones a toll.