"Officials Announce Plan To Finance, Build Peotone Airport By 2008"

Tuesday, September 16, 2003

Officials Announce Plan To Finance, Build Peotone Airport By 2008  
The Associated Press


CHICAGO (AP) -- Supporters of a third Chicago airport say they have a plan
to finance an airport in the south suburbs, with at least one runway open by
2008. 

"This business plan is about private dollars, common sense and a new way of
thinking about airports," U.S. Rep. Jesse Jackson Jr. said Monday at a news
conference in Chicago. 

Jackson, D-Chicago, appeared with four suburban mayors to announce the
formation of an airport authority. The coalition includes southern suburbs
University Park and Forest Park, and northwestern suburbs Bensenville and
Elk Grove Village, two towns that have opposed expansion of O'Hare
International Airport. 

"This is not an issue of O'Hare expansion or non-expansion," said Elk Grove
Village Mayor Craig Johnson. "It's an issue of solving regional air
capacity." 

Consultants LCOR and SNC Lavalin conducted a yearlong feasibility study but
declined to release cost estimates. 

Proponents said the airport could be financed through private investors and
airport revenue bonds, although they did not offer specific financial
details. 

"The comments from the consultants echo what most of us have been saying --
that a south suburban airport is a very viable project, that there are
people who will use it and that it's needed to satisfy a growing demand for
airport transportation," said Will County Executive Joseph Mikan. 

A Peotone airport would need state approval. Gov. Rod Blagojevich is "open"
to the concept, said spokeswoman Abby Ottenhoff. 

"The governor's first priority is still getting O'Hare up to speed,"
Ottenhoff said. "But he's always said he's committed to moving forward on a
Peotone airport as well." 

Officials said construction of a starter airport with one runway, five
gates, a terminal and a parking garage could begin in 2005 and the first
flights would follow three years later. 

No airlines have committed to the plan for a third airport.


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