"U.S. Senator Urges Chicago to Become Owner of Third Airport"

Thursday, April 3, 2003

U.S. Senator Urges Chicago to Become Owner of Third Airport
The Chicago (IL) Tribune


U.S. Sen. Peter Fitzgerald on Wednesday suggested Chicago switch gears and
become owner of the proposed south suburban regional airport, saying the
serious flaws he saw in the city's plan to expand O'Hare International
Airport were supported by a new city-funded study.

Fitzgerald (R-Ill.) urged Mayor Richard Daley to agree to meet with him,
U.S. Rep. Jesse Jackson Jr. (D-Ill.) and Will County officials to discuss
city involvement in an airport near Peotone as a more sensible alternative
to a massive buildup at O'Hare.

"I personally would have no objection if the City of Chicago owned the south
suburban airport," Fitzgerald said. "I have also floated that idea with Will
County officials."

Fitzgerald's overture to City Hall was sparked by a Tribune report Wednesday
that said chronic delays at O'Hare in recent years wouldn't be eliminated by
the Daley administration's plan to reconfigure the airfield.

Fitzgerald did not reject the possibility of a compromise that would include
a scaled-down version of new runways at O'Hare, though he said he still
strongly opposed expansion of the airport because "it's so costly and
produces such a small increase in capacity."

But Daley, angry that Fitzgerald has stymied efforts in Congress to lock the
city's O'Hare runway project into federal law, indicated there was nothing
to talk about.

The city-commissioned study on delays at an expanded O'Hare indicated severe
congestion still would be a problem in future years because projected
increases in flights would largely offset the capacity gains. The study,
which defended the expansion as preferable to the existing decades-old
airfield layout, was conducted by the same consultant that formulated the
proposed $6.6 billion O'Hare buildup.

Daley was asked Wednesday whether the report by Ricondo & Associates
suggested that a new airport might be a better answer to accommodate future
aviation growth than an O'Hare expansion. He tried to dodge the question.

"Gee, I don't know," he replied.

Daley tried to shoot down the findings in the study.

"I just disagree with it," he said. "I really believe the key is
modernization. . . . You have to modernize O'Hare Field. Why did we
modernize Midway Airport? To get to this century."

Nor did the Ricondo study change his mind about the parameters of the
expansion plan, Daley said.

"You need parallel runways," he said. "Parallel runways are the key. . .
Every airport is doing the same thing."

As for Fitzgerald's call for a meeting, Jacquelyn Heard, Daley's press
secretary, said, "If the answer is no, then why would there be a reason to
sit down?"

Will County officials also rejected the senator's role for Chicago at
Peotone.


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