Resembling a herd of mechanical dinosaurs, giant yellow earth-movers travel with surprising speed up and down a strip of land, scraping dirt from high ground at one end, depositing it in a low spot at the other and kicking up major clouds of Texas dust in the process.
The big machines are three months into a $200 million construction project that will give Dallas-Ft. Worth International Airport-now the world’s second busiest-its seventh runway. And plans for an eighth are on the drawing boards as part of a $4 billion, 20-year improvement program.
The work is proceeding full throttle even as officials in the Chicago area agonize over whether O’Hare International Airport will get its seventh air carrier runway. Meanwhile, a controversy continues over a more basic question: whether a substantial increase in capacity is needed in metropolitan Chicago.
At stake is money, and lots of it.
O’Hare and Midway Airport together generate about $14.7 billion a year, or more than 6 percent of the gross regional product, according to a 1993 city-sponsored study. If air traffic demand grows beyond the two fields’ capability, experts say planes that can’t operate here will go elsewhere-along with the economic benefit.
Dallas-Ft. Worth officials are convinced that growth is coming to those who can grab it. And they haven’t gone to the trouble of battling opponents in court and the expense of such a major expansion at DFW International with the idea of remaining No. 2.
For years, they’ve predicted their airport would dethrone O’Hare as tops in the world, and now they’re backing the Texas braggadocio with hard dollars and concrete.
Operationally, the runway expansion “takes the lid off,” said Joe Dealey Jr., DFW’s director of public affairs. “I guess, all things considered, we will be able to move metal like no airport in the world can or will be able to do.”
“It’s scary what’s happening here right now,” declared Richard Petit, the Rockford native who is head of planning and development at DFW. “We are averaging over 2,300 (flights) a day. If you project that out at 840,000 a year, it is almost the same as O’Hare.”
Petit believes the Texas field will surpass O’Hare’s flight total within the next few years and then eclipse the number of passengers served by O’Hare by the turn of the century.
David Mosena, Chicago’s aviation commissioner, won’t concede the loss of No. 1 status, “but they are catching us.”
“We are operating from a great position of strength, but there is no question that DFW is breathing down our neck,” Mosena said.
“The growth and improvements in Dallas ought to be a signal to Chicago and Illinois to continue to improve its existing airport system.”
Mayor Richard Daley wants a new runway at O’Hare and would love to build two to reduce delays and boost the airport’s capacity.
But suburban leaders, determined to prevent increased noise, have fought to block any expansion. In recent months they’ve indicated a willingness to consider one new strip to ease delays, but only if the city agrees to flight caps and other noise control measures that could further limit capacity.
The suburbanites have the support of Gov. Jim Edgar, who has the final say on any new runway.
Meanwhile, debate continues on another front.
Illinois Department of Transportation officials contend that, even if O’Hare were expanded and made as efficient as possible, its relatively small site and other constraints prevent it from being able to handle future demand. They predict it will reach capacity by 2000.
IDOT is spearheading Edgar’s proposal for a new regional airport near Peotone.
Mosena, citing changes in the airline industry, contends another field won’t be needed until well into the next century. And Daley steadfastly refuses to give his support to Peotone, insisting the site is too far from the city to have a prayer for success.
As the wrangling continues, the 20-year-old DFW only gets busier.
Last year, it played host to 804,000 flights, up 85 percent from a decade earlier. The passenger total stood at 49.7 million, an increase of 84 percent.
O’Hare logged 859,000 flights in 1993 (up 29 percent from 1983) and 65.1 million passengers (up 52 percent).
Mary Rose Loney watches the battle from a unique vantage point. She was O’Hare’s chief day-to-day manager before leaving in 1992 to become deputy executive director at DFW, a post she held until being appointed director of Philadelphia International Airport last year.
Loney believes the Dallas-Ft. Worth airport, which serves a larger percentage of smaller commuter aircraft than O’Hare, will surpass the Chicago airport in total flights.
But O’Hare, with its strong base of people originating from or bound to Chicago (in addition to those passing through on connecting flights) and with its position as a growing international airport, will maintain its edge in passengers for the foreseeable future, she predicted.
There are more economic benefits coming from passengers than the number of airplanes that land and take off, because people spend money, start and move businesses and invest in the community, experts say.
Nevertheless, if O’Hare loses its “world’s busiest” title-even in the total-flight category-because it can’t accommodate growth, the metropolitan area stands to lose more than simple bragging rights.
According to the 1993 city study, each flight creates $11,360 worth of work for local residents, and every four takeoffs or landings create one “person-year” of employment.
Looked at another way, that’s what the metropolitan area stands to lose in the future if airlines that want to bring more flights to Chicago can’t squeeze in.
Economic development is what the DFW expansion is all about, according to local officials.
The airport now generates more than $6 billion a year in regional benefits and “we expect that number to be significantly higher” when the project is completed, Dealey said.
Despite financial problems that have plagued the airline industry in the last few years, Texas officials believe carriers such as Continental and United Airlines could be candidates to start hubs at DFW in the future, joining current hub operators American Airlines and Delta Air Lines.
And when Petit, DFW’s planning chief, talks about possible competitors, he ticks off cities including Houston, Cincinnati and Denver, where airports have room to grow.
Chicago is not on the list because O’Hare is “so constrained,” he said.
If O’Hare does one day lose its No. 1 status, Mosena downplays the importance.
“The city didn’t go through great anxiety when Chicago fell behind Los Angeles as second largest city in the country,” he said. “We ought to be focusing on the quality of life in Chicago and, frankly, I think we have Los Angeles beat hands down.”
Similarly, it’s “nice to be able to brag” that O’Hare is the busiest airport on the planet, but “I think who is best is more important,” he said. “What’s really key . . . is quality and efficiency and trying to provide service to passengers and keeping costs down to the airlines.”
