A stretch version of a popular airliner that makes extraordinarily wide turns landed at O’Hare for the first time Wednesday, even though the city’s planned taxiway expansion hasn’t started.
Iberia Airlines of Spain flew an Airbus A340-600, the world’s longest passenger aircraft, from Madrid as a replacement for a smaller aircraft normally used for the non-stop service, said Annette Martinez, Chicago Department of Aviation spokeswoman. The plane left O’Hare in the evening.
For almost two years, Iberia and the German carrier Lufthansa have wanted to offer service on the A340-600 to O’Hare. But air traffic controllers’ opposition over the complexity of having the plane make sharp turns on O’Hare taxiways caused the airlines to postpone previous attempts.
Officials said they are not aware of any more A340-600s scheduled to land at O’Hare.
The Federal Aviation Administration has listed about 30 taxiway intersections at O’Hare where the plane should not taxi because the landing gear could end up in mud or grass if a perfect turn were not executed.
Routing the airplane on a regular basis to avoid those 30 tight spots would delay other aircraft, increasing congestion at the airport with the worst on-time performance in the U.S.
“Today’s flight proved that our airport is capable of handling this aircraft,” Martinez said. “We will continue to seek FAA funding to widen taxiway intersections so there will be regular service.”
The Aviation Department has applied to the FAA for funding to widen nine taxiway intersections so the A340-600 can negotiate the turns.
“The city plans to tackle this when they can obtain some funds to do this,” FAA spokesman Tony Molinaro said.
