As New O'Hare Runway Opens, Airlines Fight More Expansion

By Marcus Gilmer in News on Nov 20, 2008 9:05PM

Today marks the completion of the first stage of the O'Hare expansion as its new $450 million runway opened for business. The first flight to land on the runway (the first new one in the city in 37 years) was welcomed by Mayor Daley as well as U.S. Transportation Secretary Mary Peters and Federal Aviation Administration chief Bobby Sturgell. Washington D.C.'s Dulles and Seattle's airports also had runway grand openings today. Supporters are promising that the new runway will help alleviate O'Hare's well-known delays.

Synonymous with air-travel angst for decades, O'Hare's delays persist despite a more than 8 percent fall in traffic this year. Mother Nature has been the airport's main vulnerability because when bad weather reduced visibility, controllers could land just two planes at a time -- reducing capacity by a third.

The new strip allows controllers to bring in three planes at once no matter the conditions.

''The single biggest benefit is that it makes O'Hare a viable, all-weather airport,'' explained Joseph Schwieterman, a transportation expert at DePaul University. ''We can put to rest the traffic meltdowns that came every few weeks whenever the skies turned dark.''

It's not all peaches and cream for the $15 billion project, though. As the expansion continues, six major airlines have come out as opposed to the expansion. American, United, Delta, Northwest Airlines, Continental Airlines and ANA-All Nippon Airways all sent letters to city planners claiming the scope is just too big given the current economic climate of the industry. Delta claimed the move was an "impulsive grab for [tax] funds" while United and American called plans for a new terminal "ill-conceived...Unfortunately, the city did not accept the more modest and financially prudent approach." Rosemarie Andolino, executive director of the O'Hare expansion project, called the letters "meaningless" and claimed they were taken out of context. Today, she said, "This is absolutely critical, absolutely necessary, absolutely money well spent.'' The city issued its own statement on the matter, saying, ''They would have the city stop OMP (O'Hare Modernization Program) development now, and restart it when the 'current market reality' improves...[which would] cause several years of delay and add significantly to its cost.''

Today at the ceremony for the runway, Mayor Daley admitted "there are a lot of issues on the table," but tried to put a positive spin on things by saying, "you can't be so negative about the future. You have to believe you can do better." Tell that to the folks in Bensenville.

AP Photo/Nam Y. Huh