CHICAGO: ORD & MDW discussion

[nomarandlee]

I'd guess the answer is, of course, money, but it makes me double down on wondering why they haven't considered building out the new extension on the east end of T5, with a new curbside drop-off extension of the roadway. The extension, with curb drop-offs and new ticketing and check-ins, would lead right into the hall of the new extension, which is now far nicer than the older west side of T5.

I speculate that this could for the an approximate portion of the price of this cantervillering addition from the parking garage in these latest plans. These resources could have gone a long way to just such a new extension of a curbside check-in for the west side of the terminal. As it is it is still a heck of a long walk from the check-in area of T5 to the new extension on the east side of the terminal.

[F1 Tommy]

A lot of these airlines are being pushed by the city now as they aggressively take gates away. Delta and AA both had that happen. Now they are all running to beef up their schedules. UA will have to expand also or they could loose gates next year.

This has been going on since Covid when all the other hubs went to 100% and Chicago ORD sat as low as 85% what 2019 flights were. AA and DL dragged their feet more than UA.

Very slick work by UA to catch them with their pants down. This goes full swing in October. That's when T1 work will really get started.

Chicago has been performing well below its weight for 5 years now.

If only ATC could get their act together. They need more staff at ORD and they need to admit it and fix it.

[Kngkyle]

Someone in the know confirmed this is the first phase. The second phase would mirror the cantilever on the other half of the road frontage.

[twister244]

The ORD social media pages are teasing a groundbreaking ceremony tomorrow.... Which I assume is probably for S1. I've also seen a couple posts on aviation social media indicating this as well.

[MultiModal]

Yep - Word is Caissons are starting Sept 1.

[sentinel]

Originally Posted by MultiModal

Yep - Word is Caissons are starting Sept 1.

Any updated renders, or maybe expected tomorrow?

[twister244]

Originally Posted by sentinel

Any updated renders, or maybe expected tomorrow?

I think so!

Looks like this page went up sometime today....

https://ord21.com/Pages/ConcourseD.aspx

First thing that is interesting is this is gonna be Concourse D. For those who know their ORD history, we actually had a concourse D way back before the modern Jahn T1 was built, there was a Concourse D that came out between T2 and the old A/B/C concourse that was originally built in the 50s(?). It was very much like how Concourse G comes out between T2 and T3.

Also of note - In the aerial rendering, you see S2 out there, whereas before, you didn't see that. Kinda interesting.......

[twister244]

The SOM page has also been updated with a few more renderings there too.....

https://www.som.com/projects/ohare-international-airport-councourse-d/

[k1052]

Originally Posted by twister244

Also of note - In the aerial rendering, you see S2 out there, whereas before, you didn't see that. Kinda interesting.......

With traffic recovery gate space has turned back into the old UA/AA knife fight we all know and missed maybe they intend to build it sooner rather than later.

[2PRUROCKS!]

https://www.yahoo.com/news/articles/see-plans-concourse-o-hare-110000550.html

[twister244]

One thing I noticed in earlier renderings was the possibility of an outdoor terrace on the southern end of the terminal. That seems to be gone now, even though there's building structure in place that extends out from it.

It would be amazing if there's some magical announcement of S2 getting built ahead of schedule today, but I doubt it. It was hard enough to get the airlines and city together on a revamped timeline for S1 + OGT, let alone some hidden deal where they go back to an aggressive schedule of S1 + S2 then OGT. Especially with the court battle going on regarding AA....

With that said though, if the money was there, or UA was willing to shell it out - It could be done. The beautiful part of the state of the airfield now is there's no major taxiway/runway work left in order to facilitate expansion to the West. ORD can build S2 plus whatever they want to the West finally without worrying about having to shift the airfield around.

[twister244]

So here's another very interesting piece of information coming out via YIMBY.

However, a new schedule has been revealed for the overall three-phase project. Last year, the city announced that the new Global Terminal would be built after Concourse D. We now know that it will revert back to the original plan with the next remote concourse to the west being built next.

https://chicagoyimby.com/2025/08/new-pro...-concourse-d-breaks-ground-at-ohare.html

Can anyone verify this? I haven't seen it in any other press releases over the last 24 hours and would be kind of a big deal if true.

[jonesrmj]

The renderings of the new Concourse D









Overall, I really like it. I think it looks really nice and if looks like the renderings in real life, it will be one of the nicest terminals in the US. It also looks like the gate in the top image all the way to the left will be an A380 gate. I wonder if that would make Lufthansa start sending their A380s to ORD since they seem to have the traffic. I'm assuming they don't because they depart out of Terminal 1 which doesn't have an A380 gate. But Concourse D would fix that.

The only thing I don't really like is how the concourse doesn't go all the way to the two leftmost gates and instead has these weird-looking long jetways. I’d prefer if the gates were designed more like those at LAX’s TBIT, where the terminal section with the escalator to the sterile corridor juts out and connects with shorter, simpler jet bridges:

[nomarandlee]

My thoughts are that it looks like a perfectly fine and pleasant place to wait for my plane. It appears to clear the bar (or perhaps slightly exceed it) for how modern terminals should look in terms of openness and amenities. I don't see it as moving the needle, such as Paris CDG T2, Bangalore, or Madrid–Barajas. Hopefully, ORD's T2 reconstruction will be more in line with those I just mentioned.

At least initially, I don't think it will be as striking as O'Hare's T5 extension, which surpassed my expectations relative to its renders.

Like another forumer made the point earlier, I wish they would incorporate an outside terrace like originally proposed. Even though Chicago weather would limit access, it is a great feature in the few airports I have personally used (i.e., Tokyo Haneda).

[ardecila]

Originally Posted by twister244

So here's another very interesting piece of information coming out via YIMBY.



https://chicagoyimby.com/2025/08/new-pro...-concourse-d-breaks-ground-at-ohare.html

Can anyone verify this? I haven't seen it in any other press releases over the last 24 hours and would be kind of a big deal if true.

Agreed - building another satellite concourse would also be a megaproject, you have to get people in/out of there safely which likely means an underground APM train. It's too far for a pedestrian tunnel, almost 1/2 mile.

[twister244]

Couple pics of the construction site I snapped before boarding a flight Saturday evening. This is looking out from the Southern end of Concourse C.

[Chicagoguy]

Romania’s HiSky Expands United States Flights, With New York & Chicago

“Since June 2024, HiSky has been operating a flight between Bucharest (OTP) and New York (JFK)…

There’s now an interesting update. The New York flight only shows as operating through next spring, though as of June 2026, the airline will launch a flight between Bucharest and Chicago (ORD). The flight will operate with the following schedule:

H4103 Bucharest to Chicago departing 9:00AM arriving 11:50AM
H4104 Chicago to Bucharest departing 1:20PM arriving 7:10AM (+1 day)

The 5,216-mile flight is blocked at 10hr50min westbound and 9hr50min eastbound. It’s expected to operate 2x weekly.”

https://onemileatatime.com/news/hisky-romania-united-states-flights/

[Chicagoguy]

Chicago O'Hare International Airport Will Have 17 European Passenger Airlines For The 1st Time In 7 Years

“ Chicago O'Hare is the US's third-busiest airport for Europe-bound flights. According to Cirium Diio data for July 2026, it will have an average of 54 daily departures across the pond. Inevitably, American Airlines and United Airlines will have over half of the market (52% of the flights)...

Departures In July 2026*

Three to four daily
Lufthansa
Frankfurt (A340-300/747-8i), Munich (A350-900)

Three daily
British Airways
London Heathrow (777-200ER/787-10)

Two to three daily
Turkish Airlines
Istanbul (777-300ER/787-9), which is on the European side of the Bosphorus

Two to three daily
LOT Polish
Kraków (787-8), Warsaw (787-8)

Two daily
Aer Lingus
Dublin (A330-300)

Two daily
Icelandair
Keflavik (737 MAX 8/737 MAX 9)

Two daily
SWISS
Zurich (A330-300/777-300ER)

Daily
Air France
Paris CDG (A350-900)

Daily
Austrian
Vienna (787-9)

Daily
Finnair
Helsinki (A330-300)

Daily
ITA Airways
Rome Fiumicino (A330neo)

Daily
Iberia
Madrid (A330-200/A330-300)

Daily
KLM
Amsterdam (787-10)

Daily
SAS
Copenhagen (A330-300)

Five weekly
TAP Air Portugal
Lisbon (A330neo)

Three weekly
Air Serbia
Belgrade (A330-200)

Two weekly
HiSky
Bucharest (A330-200)”

https://simpleflying.com/chicago-ohare-i...er-airlines-for-the-1st-time-in-7-years/

[woodrow]

How many flights a day to Europe from O'Hare by U.S. airlines?

[SIGSEGV]

Originally Posted by woodrow

How many flights a day to Europe from O'Hare by U.S. airlines?

Checking for next summer (perhaps there will be more announced later):

London has 3 daily from each of UA/AA (6 total)
Frankfurt has 2 daily from UA
Dublin, Paris, Athens, Rome, have 1 daily from each of UA/AA (2 total)
Madrid, Naples have 1 daily from AA
Reykjavik (if it counts), Shannon, Edinburgh, Amsterdam, Brussels, Munich, Zurich, Milan have 1 daily from UA..

So that's 15/16 cities and 25/26 flights, if I counted correctly.