Chicago O\u2019Hare\u00a0International\u00a0Airport\u00a0is an airport located in\u00a0Chicago,\u00a0Illinois, 17 miles (27 km) northwest of the Chicago Loop.\u00a0O\u2019Hare\u00a0International\u00a0Airport\u00a0is the largest hub of United Airlines(whose headquarters will soon move from nearby\u00a0Elk\u00a0Grove\u00a0Township\u00a0to downtown\u00a0Chicago) and the second-largest hub of American Airlines (after Dallas\/Fort Worth).<\/p>\n
O\u2019Hare\u00a0International\u00a0Airport\u00a0is operated by the City of Chicago Department of Aviation, associated with an umbrella regional authority.<\/p>\n
Chicago\u00a0O\u2019Hare\u00a0International\u00a0Airport\u00a0\u00a0rivals\u00a0Hartsfield-Jackson\u00a0Atlanta\u00a0International\u00a0Airport\u00a0as the world\u2019s busiest airport. However in 2005, Hartsfield overtook\u00a0O\u2019Hare\u00a0International\u00a0Airport\u00a0as the world\u2019s busiest airport in terms of takeoffs and landings. This was mainly due to the federal government imposing flight caps at O\u2019Hare to reduce flight delays.<\/p>\n
\u00a0For the first half of 2006,\u00a0Chicago\u00a0O\u2019Hare\u00a0International\u00a0Airport\u00a0was the busiest airport. In terms of total passengers served, Hartsfield has held the title of world\u2019s busiest airport for 8 years now, but\u00a0Chicago\u00a0also has commercial air traffic to\u00a0Midway\u00a0Airport. If Midway did not exist,\u00a0O\u2019Hare\u00a0International\u00a0Airport\u00a0would be the busier airport over Hartsfield.\u00a0O\u2019Hare\u00a0International\u00a0Airport\u00a0also has a strong international presence with flights to more than 60 foreign destinations.<\/p>\n
O\u2019Hare\u00a0International\u00a0Airport\u00a0ranks fourth in the nation\u2019s international gateways; only\u00a0JFK\u00a0International\u00a0Airport\u00a0in\u00a0New York City, LAX in\u00a0Los Angeles\u00a0and\u00a0MiamiInternational\u00a0Airport\u00a0serve more foreign destinations. O\u2019Hare\u00a0International\u00a0Airport\u00a0was voted the\u00a0Best\u00a0Airport\u00a0in\u00a0North America\u00a0for the year 2003 by readers of the U.S. Edition of Business Traveler Magazine, marking six years in a row O\u2019Hare has earned top honor.<\/p>\n
Chicago\u00a0O\u2019Hare\u00a0International\u00a0Airport\u00a0was constructed in 1942-43 as a manufacturing plant for Douglas C-54s during WWII. The site was chosen for its proximity to the city and transportation. The two million square-foot (180,000 m\u00b2) factory needed easy access to the workforce of the nation\u2019s then-second-largest city, as well as its extensive railroad infrastructure.<\/p>\n
Orchard Place was a small pre-existing community in the area, and the airport was known during the war as Orchard Place Airport\/Douglas Field. The facility was also the site of the Army Air Force\u2019s 803 Special Depot, which stored many rare or experimental planes, including captured enemy aircraft. These historic aircraft would later be transferred to the\u00a0National\u00a0Air\u00a0Museum, going on to form the core of the Smithsonian Air and\u00a0Space\u00a0Museum\u2019s collection.<\/p>\n
Douglas Aircraft Company\u2019s contract ended in 1945, and though plans were proposed to build commercial aircraft, the company ultimately chose to concentrate production on the west coast. With the departure of Douglas, the airport took the name\u00a0Orchard\u00a0Field\u00a0Airport.<\/p>\n
\u00a0In 1945, the facility was chosen by the City of\u00a0Chicago\u00a0as the site for a facility to meet future aviation demands. Though its familiar three-letter IATA code ORD still reflects the early identity of the airport, it was renamed in 1949 after Lt. Cmdr.\u00a0\u00a0Edward \u201cButch\u201d O\u2019Hare a WWII flying ace who was awarded the Medal of Honor.<\/p>\n
By the early 1950s, Midway Airport, which had been the primary Chicago airport since 1931, had become too small and crowded despite multiple expansions and was unable to handle the planned first generation of jets. The City of\u00a0Chicago\u00a0and FAA began to develop\u00a0O\u2019Hare\u00a0International\u00a0Airport\u00a0as the main airport for\u00a0Chicago\u2019s future.<\/p>\n
The first commercial passenger flights were started there in 1955, and an international terminal was built in 1958, but the majority of domestic traffic did not move from Midway until completion of a 1962 expansion of O\u2019Hare. The arrival of Midway\u2019s former traffic instantly made\u00a0O\u2019Hare\u00a0International\u00a0Airport\u00a0the new World\u2019s\u00a0Busiest\u00a0Airport, serving 10 million passengers annually. Within two years that number would double, with more people passing through\u00a0O\u2019Hare\u00a0International\u00a0Airportin 12 months than\u00a0Ellis Island\u00a0had processed in its entire existence. In 1997, annual passenger volume was 70 million.<\/p>\n
O\u2019Hare Field is physically connected to the city of\u00a0Chicago\u00a0via a narrow strip of land under the Kennedy Expressway. This land was added to the city limits in the 1950\u2019s to assure the airport was contiguous with the city to keep it under city control. In one of the most famous land grabs in history, the land was condemned then annexed instantly by the city before surrounding suburbs even knew what happened to keep them from interfering with the city\u2019s plans for growth at the airport. A rapid transit rail line was extended to the airport in the 1980s.<\/p>\n
Chicago\u00a0O\u2019Hare\u00a0International\u00a0Airport\u2019s high volume and crowded schedule can lead to cancellations and long delays that affect air travel across the\u00a0United States. Official reports rank\u00a0O\u2019Hare\u00a0International\u00a0Airport\u00a0as the least punctual airport in the\u00a0United States\u00a0based on percentage of delayed flights. United Airlines and American Airlines have recently agreed to modify their schedules to help reduce congestion caused by clustered arrivals and departures. Because of the air traffic departing, arriving, and near the airport, the air traffic controllers at O\u2019Hare and its nearby facilities are some of the hardest working in the world in terms of number of controlled flights per hour.<\/p>\n
City management has committed to a $6 billion capital investment plan to increase the airport\u2019s capacity and decrease delays by an estimated 79 percent. This plan was approved by the FAA in October 2005 and will involve a reconfiguration of the airfield and addition of terminal space. Four runways will be added and three decommissioned in order to give the airfield an eight-runway parallel configuration similar to those in\u00a0Dallas.<\/p>\n
Terminals 3 and 5 will undergo expansion, and a new west terminal is planned with western access into the airport; however, some land acquisition is necessary, requiring approximately 2,800 residents to be relocated. The program will expand the airport\u2019s capacity to over 3,800 operations per day, up from the present capacity of 2,700 and will vastly increase passenger throughput capacity.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
Chicago O\u2019Hare\u00a0International\u00a0Airport\u00a0is an airport located in\u00a0Chicago,\u00a0Illinois, 17 miles (27 km) northwest of the Chicago Loop.\u00a0O\u2019Hare\u00a0International\u00a0Airport\u00a0is the largest hub of United Airlines(whose headquarters will soon move from nearby\u00a0Elk\u00a0Grove\u00a0Township\u00a0to downtown\u00a0Chicago) and the second-largest hub of American Airlines (after Dallas\/Fort Worth). O\u2019Hare\u00a0International\u00a0Airport\u00a0is operated…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[7],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-562","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-north-america-airports"],"_aioseop_title":"","_aioseop_description":"","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.international-airport.eu\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/562","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.international-airport.eu\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.international-airport.eu\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.international-airport.eu\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.international-airport.eu\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=562"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/www.international-airport.eu\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/562\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":563,"href":"https:\/\/www.international-airport.eu\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/562\/revisions\/563"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.international-airport.eu\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=562"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.international-airport.eu\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=562"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.international-airport.eu\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=562"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}