A huge and beautiful metropolis on the shores of Lake Michigan, Chicago is rightly called the capital of the Midwest. It occupies the 3rd place by the number of inhabitants (after New York and Los Angeles), is a large industrial, cultural and financial center. With a population of 2,722,553 people, it is the largest US transportation hub, and Chicago airports daily receive planes from 60 foreign countries and domestic airlines.
The workload of all three airports in this city indicates how important and important this settlement is in North America.
Description of O'Hare Airport
In the northwestern area of Chicago is the largest international airport in O'Hare. More than 2,600 take-offs and landings take place daily in it, which makes it the busiest in the world, so work in this place cannot be called easy.
The airport is located 27 km from the city center. Here, during the Second World War, the Douglas factory for the production of aircraft was built, but in the coming peace time, the 180,000 m 2 that he occupied were freed. The Chicago administration decided to develop an aerodrome built for production to test flight equipment, and in 1949 he was named after the famous military pilot, ace Edward O'Hara. He bears this name in our time.
Ohara Airport (Chicago) has come a long way, which includes such changes:
- by 1955 he began to accept commercial flights;
- in 1958 an international terminal was built;
- by 1962, work on expanding the airport was completed, and it became the busiest in the world;
- in 1965, 10 million passengers per year were transported through it;
- 1997 - a new record was set, and the number of people flying to O'Hare Airport annually exceeded 70 million;
- Nowadays, its terminals let in up to 80 million people a year.
This giant is connected with the city by a small plot of land only 70 m wide, which allows the city municipality to manage it.
Terminals
Today, Chicago airports have not yet fully cope with the huge number of passengers arriving annually in Illinois or following in transit.
There are currently 4 terminals in O'Hara, but the air traffic controllers are still considered the busiest in the world. In the near future, it is planned to build another 2 terminals, for which the city authorities will have to resettle almost 3,000 people.
There are 186 exits to the terminals No. 1, 2, 3 and 5 and 9 of the hall for passenger reception at this airport. Each of them has its own halls and transitions between them:
- Terminal No. 1 consists of 2 halls and 53 exits. Airlines are served through it: in the hall United Airlines, which operates flights to Atlanta, Amsterdam, Beijing, Boston, Dallas, Paris, London, Los Angeles, New York, Singapore and other cities. In Hall C, passengers wait for flights to Albany, Omaha, Syracuse, to Austin, Cleveland, Kansas City, Portland, Indianapolis, Milwaukee and hundreds of other cities (United Express).
Interesting: this terminal was designed and built in 1987, and before that, the building erected in 1955 served the international flights.
- Terminal No. 2 was erected in 1962. Today, modified, it holds 2 halls with 30 exits. From it departures to Canada and on internal lines are made.
- Terminal 3 has 77 passages to runways in four halls. This American Airlines hub serves domestic airlines.
- Terminal No. 5 is an international hall with 21 exits.
In addition to transporting passengers, Chicago airports provide cargo transportation, for which each of them has separate zones for this.
O'Hare Airport Infrastructure
The runways at this airport are at a disadvantage, as they intersect with each other. This causes the collision of aircraft, especially with poor visibility.
At present, they are being re-equipped, for which 2 strips have been closed, in order to build 4 new ones, but running parallel to each other instead. Given the load on the airport, we can say that this is a titanic work that requires maximum concentration of both dispatchers and pilots.
This is Chicago airport today. The scheme of its restructuring inspires hope that in the near future up to 3800 aircraft will take off from its new safe runways. While there is a struggle of communities that will have to move to new places of residence, but there is hope that a consensus will be found and the airport will be expanded.
In addition, all Chicago airports are required to comply with the noise reduction program requirements and use only 1 runway between 24.00 and 6.00.
Transportation of a huge number of passengers inside the O'Hare terminal is carried out using special wagons that deliver people to all terminals from the parking lot. The total length of the path is 4.3 km.
Midway Airport
Midway Airfield was built in 1923, just 13 km from Chicago. Its only lane at that time was used to receive airplanes carrying mail. In 1927, it received airport status, and a year later expanded to 12 hangars and four runways.
Today, the main carrier that used it is Southwest Airlines. More than 20 million people pass through it every year, and it is rightfully considered the second largest in Illinois.
Through 3 terminals with 43 gates, flights depart daily on the following routes:
- Southwest Airlines - in Orlando, Cancun, Oklahoma City, Albuquerque, Denver, Buffalo, Boston, Phoenix, Philadelphia and dozens of others.
- Delta Air Lines to Atlanta.
- Frontier Airlines to Trenton and Wilmington.
- Volaris - in Mexico City, Guadalajara, Guanajuato.
Like other Chicago airports, Midway is very busy and takes 3rd place in the ranking of the busiest airports in the United States.
Exclusive Airport
This Chicago airport has regional significance and at one time was called the “Gaultier Field”. In 1953, he had only one runway on 40 acres of land. It was acquired by George Priester, landscaped for 30 years, and today it is the third busiest airport in Chicago, letting in more than 200,000 passengers every year.
Online scoreboard
For customers, an interactive Internet scoreboard has been developed for the Chicago airport, by which they can find out the time of arrival and departure of the aircraft, as well as its status at a given time. O'Hara as the largest airport in Chicago (the reviews about it are the most controversial) is always heavily loaded, so you can postpone departure time. A service such as an online scoreboard will allow passengers to be aware of such changes.