Chicago O'Hare

ORD. The largest and main airport serving Chicago, Illinois and the world’s 2nd busiest airport by passenger traffic, serving some 80-million passengers a year. It is the largest hub for United Airlines and the 2nd largest hub for American Airlines. The airport is one of the “culprit” airports for air congestion in the United States. If it only rains, you will be delayed for hours. And don’t even get me started with the notorious and agonizing delays in the winter.

The airport is located about 20-miles NW of downtown Chicago near I-90 and I-294. The airport has several terminals—some of them serve just one carrier, most notably Terminal 2 for American Airlines and Terminal 3 for United Airlines. The airport is conveniently served by the METRA and Chicago CTA transit lines that provide convenient transportation to/from the airport.

The airport has become so crowded and so busy that regional leaders throughout Northeastern Illinois want another major airport to help ease congestion at O’Hare, but politics and Red Tape keep impeading progress. The only thing that has been done is the futile addition of a few runways, but even that has been scrutinized because residents in the area keep protesting and complaining of the extra noise.