Growing congestion at O’Hare International Airport and the city’s shutdown of Meigs Field last year are making Chicago more of a hassle for people who conduct their business jetting around on private planes.
The situation might not elicit much sympathy from most airline travelers who–while buckled up on O’Hare’s crowded airfield waiting for their planes to take off–look out the window and see small business aircraft carrying few passengers taxiing in the shadows of the large commercial airliners.
But the business jets, despite being a tiny portion of the traffic going to O’Hare, bring a lot of commerce into the region.
Access to O’Hare will soon be restricted for corporate aircraft and other general aviation planes. Special permission will be required to land.
Some 20,000 flights that operated at Meigs until Mayor Richard Daley bulldozed the downtown’s lakefront airport in March 2003 are now streaming into Midway Airport, small airports in the region and to some extent O’Hare, U.S. Rep. John Mica (R-Fla.), chairman of the House Aviation Subcommittee, said at a congressional hearing last week on O’Hare’s problems.
Starting in November, private pilots flying to O’Hare will be required to contact a reservations desk at the Federal Aviation Administration to check whether they can land at the airport during peak travel periods.
The change is part of an agreement reached in August between the airlines and the FAA to ease O’Hare delays by limiting the number of flight slots. O’Hare arrivals will be capped at 88 airline flights per hour between 7 a.m. and 8 p.m. on Nov. 1. In addition, up to four arrivals will be allowed each hour to accommodate military, general aviation, cargo and charter flights.
FAA Administrator Marion Blakey said the maximum of 92 flights will bring operations more in line with O’Hare’s capacity and reduce flight delays by 20 percent.
The on-time performance rate at O’Hare has been the lowest of any U.S. airport this year and even worse than in 2000 when record delays led to proposals for a Passenger Bill of Rights, Blakey noted at a congressional hearing on O’Hare last week in Washington.
Blakey said the FAA will meet this week with groups representing business and general aviation to work out concerns about the new four-per-hour cap on unscheduled flights.
“The reservations desk has worked at LaGuardia Airport [in New York] and Reagan National Airport [in Washington, D.C.], and I think it will work at O’Hare,” Blakey said. “Most of the time, we are able to accommodate general aviation aircraft.”
Still, business aviation groups are wary.
“While we appreciate the need to address capacity concerns at O’Hare, restricting access to one particular airport without understanding the implications on the entire air-traffic system is unwise,” said Ed Bolen, president and chief executive of the National Business Aviation Association.
Bolen said the flight diversions caused by the overnight destruction of Meigs are “a classic example of where local decisions at one airport affect other airports in the system.”
“This should be a wake-up call,” he said.
Sweet temptation on CTA
After the highly publicized case last week of chemical engineer Gaurav Bhatia getting slapped with a $50 ticket for “sleeping dangerously” on a CTA train, riders had better be careful that the only thing they chew is the fat.
Despite a law that prohibits eating or drinking on CTA property, Dunkin’ Donuts concessions are opening at “L” stops across the city. Is this some kind of revenue-producing entrapment strategy aimed at fining transit riders who test positive for having traces of powered sugar on their lips?
“We expect Dunkin’ Donuts customers will put their doughnuts in a briefcase or a purse and eat them later,” said CTA spokeswoman Noelle Gaffney.
Getting Around, who is not a smoker, plans to keep a book of matches handy just in case. If approached by a transit police officer for the crime of eating on a CTA platform, I’ll simply strike a match and light the end of my chocolate Long John.
Everybody knows the CTA rarely enforces its no-smoking policy.
Ahoy! And Bear down
Motorists in the downtown area may encounter temporary traffic delays as bridge-lift season swings into high gear. Bridges will be raised and lowered between 9 a.m. and noon on Wednesdays, Saturdays and Sundays through November to allow masted boats returning from the lake to reach storage facilities, according to the Chicago Department of Transportation.
Metra, Pace and the CTA offer the home-field advantage over fighting traffic and paying high parking fees for fans attending Bears games at Soldier Field this season. Metra’s unlimited-ride weekend pass costs $5 and permits up to three children under age 12 to ride free. Metra Electric trains stop at the 18th Street and Roosevelt Road stations near the stadium. Football fans arriving on Metra from the suburbs at Union Station or the Ogilvie Transportation Center can ride the CTA’s No. 128 Soldier Field Express for $1 each way. The CTA’s No. 12 Roosevelt and No. 146 Inner Drive/Michigan Express bus routes also serve Soldier Field. Pace’s Bears Shuttle buses depart from Pace’s Northwest Transportation Center, at Martingale Road and Kimberly Drive in Schaumburg, and Pace’s Northwest Point Park-n-Ride, near Arlington Heights Road just south of Interstate Highway 90 in Elk Grove Village.
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Contact Getting Around at jhilkevitch@tribune.com or c/o the Chicago Tribune, 435 N. Michigan Ave., Chicago, IL 60611. Read recent Getting Around columns at bancodeprofissionais.com/go/gettingaround.
