A huge and beautiful metropolis on the shores of Lake Michigan, Chicago is rightfully called the capital of the Midwest. It ranks third in terms of the number of inhabitants (after New York and Los Angeles), is a major industrial, cultural and financial center. With a population of 2,722,553, it is the largest transportation hub in the United States, and Chicago airports receive aircraft from 60 foreign countries and domestic airlines daily.
The congestion of all three airports in this city indicates how important and popular the settlement is in North America.
Description of O'Hare Airport
In the northwestern area of Chicago is the largest international airport in the city of O'Hare. With over 2,600 takeoffs and landings every day, making it the busiest place in the world, it's not an easy place to work.
This airport is located 27 km from the city center. It was built here during World War IIDouglas aircraft factory, but in peacetime, the 180,000 m2 he occupied became vacant. The Chicago administration decided to develop the airfield built during the production for testing flight equipment, and in 1949 it was named after the famous military pilot, ace Edward O'Hare. He bears this name in our time.
OHara Airport (Chicago) has come a long way, including the following changes:
- by 1955 it began to receive commercial flights;
- an international terminal was built in 1958;
- by 1962, the expansion of the airport had ended, and it became the busiest in the world;
- in 1965 it carried 10 million passengers a year;
- 1997 - A new record is set, and the number of people flying into O'Hare Airport annually exceeds 70 million;
- nowadays its terminals pass up to 80 million people a year.
This giant is connected to the city by a small piece of land only 70 m wide, allowing the city municipality to manage it.
Terminals
Currently, Chicago's airports have not yet fully coped with the huge number of passengers arriving in or transiting Illinois every year.
Currently, there are 4 terminals in O'Hare, but the dispatchers of this terminal are still considered the busiest in the world. In the near future, it is planned to build 2 more terminals, for which the city authorities will have to relocate almost 3,000man.
This airport has 186 exits to terminals No. 1, 2, 3 and 5 and 9 halls for receiving passengers. Each of them has its own halls and passages between them:
Terminal 1 consists of 2 halls and 53 exits. Airlines are served through it: in hall B United Airlines, which operates flights to Atlanta, Amsterdam, Beijing, Boston, Dallas, Paris, London, Los Angeles, New York, Singapore and other cities. In Concourse C, passengers await flights to Albany, Omaha, Syracuse, 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, international flights were served by a building erected in 1955
- Terminal 2 was built in 1962. Today, modified, it accommodates 2 halls with 30 exits. Flights to Canada and domestic flights are made from it.
- Terminal No. 3 has 77 passes to the runways in four halls. This American Airlines hub serves domestic flights.
- Terminal 5 is an international concourse with 21 gates.
In addition to carrying 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 each other. This causes the risk of aircraft collisions, especially when visibility is poor.
Currently underwaytheir re-equipment, for which 2 lanes were closed in order to build 4 new ones instead, but running parallel to each other. 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 soon up to 3,800 aircraft will take off daily from its new safe runways. While there is a struggle between 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 noise reduction program requirements and operate only 1 runway between 2400 and 0600.
The transportation of a huge number of passengers inside the O'Hare air terminal is carried out using special cars 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 kilometers from Chicago. Its only runway at that time served to receive aircraft carrying mail. In 1927, it received the status of an airport, and a year later it expanded to 12 hangars and four runways.
To date, the main carrier that has 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 daily flights are carried out on the following routes:
- Southwest Airlines to Orlando, Cancun, Oklahoma City, Albuquerque, Denver, Buffalo, Boston, Phoenix, Philadelphia and dozens more.
- 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 is the 3rd busiest airport terminal in the US.
Exketiv Airport
This Chicago airport is of regional importance and at one time was called "Field Gauthier". In 1953, he had only one runway on 40 acres of land. It was acquired by George Priester, landscaped over the course of 30 years, and today it is the third busiest airport in Chicago, passing through more than 200,000 passengers annually.
Online scoreboard
An interactive Internet scoreboard of the Chicago airport has been developed for customers, 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'Hare, as Chicago's largest airport (reviews about it the most controversial), is always heavily loaded, so a delay in departure time is possible. A service such as an online scoreboard will allow passengers to keep abreast of such changes.
