"Airports looking to snatch up business O'Hare can't handle"

Saturday, August 14, 2004

Airports looking to snatch up business O'Hare can't handle 
The Daily Southtown - Chicago (IL)


Chicago's O'Hare International Airport, the nation's busiest, has grown
beyond what it can sustain, and now three smaller airports in Gary,
Rockford and Milwaukee are offering a helping hand. 

"Avoid the Chicago ORDeal," Milwaukee's Mitchell International Airport
will suggest this month to 100,000 northern Illinois residents with a
booklet designed to draw passengers away from O'Hare. 

The advertising pitch capitalizes on ORD as O'Hare's three-letter
airport code designation, one that dates to the original airstrip there
known as Orchard Field. 

Mitchell is 90 miles from downtown Chicago. 

Gary/Chicago International Airport, 30 miles from downtown Chicago, is
adding 400 free parking spaces and positioning itself to take flights in
case the Transportation Department mandates reductions at O'Hare. 

And Rockford's Northwest Chicagoland Regional Airport, 80 miles from
downtown Chicago, has announced a $650,000 plan to build a customs and
immigrations wing for international flights. Rockford officials, too,
said they are interested in contributing to solving O'Hare's delay
problems. 

O'Hare, meanwhile, faces record summertime delays and an ongoing faceoff
with the Transportation Department, which is intent on forcing cuts in
service to O'Hare, whether through voluntary flight reductions by 16
major airlines or unilateral action to improve the growing gridlock. 

Negotiations between the department and the airlines, which began last
week, are still under way.

"We're waving our arms and saying, 'Passengers, this is one way to avoid
having to put up with that,' " said Pat Rowe, a Mitchell airport
spokeswoman. 

"There's no doubt in my mind that people are choosing to use Mitchell
just for their convenience and because they are aware of their
congestion problems at O'Hare." 

The trio of airports jockeying to increase capacity and visibility are
much smaller than O'Hare but cite that as evidence of an ability to
grow. 

Mitchell, which last year served a record 6.1 million passengers,
compared to 65 million passengers at O'Hare, does not believe it is in a
position to take flights that the Transportation Department no longer
allows to land at O'Hare. 

Instead, it sees an opportunity to entice passengers to fly on any of
the 13 airlines with service at the airport. 

"For them to move their operations, their staff and their equipment to
Mitchell is, I think, probably a major investment for an airline," Rowe
said. 

Gary, on the other hand, is thinking bigger. 

Mayor Scott King has sent a letter to Transportation Secretary Norman Y.
Mineta noting Gary's ability to take more flights and requesting a
meeting to drive that point home. 

A Transportation Department spokesman has acknowledged Gary's potential
role in alleviating the overburdened nationwide system. 

"Gary plays into Transportation Department efforts to encourage
expansion system-wide," Transportation Department spokesman Brian
Turmail. 

In May, O'Hare hit a record monthly high of 14,500 delays, according to
the Federal Aviation Administration. The Transportation Department says
O'Hare's on-time arrivals, at 67 percent, are solely responsible for
dragging the nationwide system below the FAA's on-time target of 82
percent.


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