Not Enough Places to Land

Because of its central location, Chicago's O'Hare is the busiest and most congested air-travel crossroads on the continent. Serving as a hub for the two largest U.S. carriers, United and American airlines, O'Hare is expected to handle about 57 million passengers and 800,000 flights this year. At peak periods air-traffic controllers direct up to 210 takeoffs and landings an hour. The airport, once an apple orchard (hence the call letters ORD), is functioning at 96% of capacity and has no room to expand because suburbs surround it. Yet air traffic is still growing. For the first seven months of this year, the airport logged 106,458 hours of delays, compared with 67,590 at the second busiest U.S. airport, Atlanta's Hartsfield International. About 75% of O'Hare's delays are attributed to the city's blustery weather. Two new buildings may alleviate some of the congestion. The futuristic United Airlines terminal, opened in 1987, handles 90,000 people a day. A new international terminal and a people-mover system are scheduled for 1992. But what Chicago really needs is another major airport.