Rockford Airport Tries to Divert Attention Away From Peotone

December 2, 2003
WTVO, Illinois

Rockford Airport Tries to Divert Attention Away From Peotone

The race to keep Chicago's third airport away from Peotone is in its final
stretch. 

"It's just full of politics. It's being done for all the wrong reasons in
the wrong place," says Rockford Airport Director Bob O'Brien. 

He says the wrong place is an airport in Peotone.  On Wednesday the FAA will
be listening to people for and against its construction while O'Brien's
staff talks up Rockford as a different location. 

"We have everything that they're looking for. We' re just not on the
southside of Chicagoland. Quite honestly, and I was saying this 10 years ago
when I was in Springfield," says O'Brien. 

He says that 10 years ago when talk of a third Chicagoland airport first
started, Rockford wasn't even in the mix. That's because 10 years ago, the
Rockford Airport just wasn't what it is today. 

"It has a 10,000 foot runway. It has a category 3 landing system," says
O'brien. All of those he says is what could put Rockford at top now.  None
of the other places have talked about have that.  O'Brien says the talk has
been centered around Peotone, Calumet, and Gary, Indiana. 

Now the big move would have to be the minds of state lawmakers and federal
officials who have nearly set their sites on a new $4 billion airport at
Peotone in 5 years, rather than shifting gears to Rockford.

O'Brien says he won't be making the trip to the meeting personally because
the Hungarian ambassador will be here for a meeting about that potential
passenger service to Central Europe. 


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