Quote:
Originally Posted by aquablue
O'Hare will be a monster of an airport with 6 parallel runways and two more. What an airfield. Pity most of the terminals look like shit.
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Compared to the world's emerging commercial capitals, yes, compared to most of the Americas, not really. That's pretty much how it has been and will be in this country. Plus, the airlines that sell lounge memberships have reduced incentive to support terminal improvements; their lounges are increasingly executive havens from the hoi polloi terminals. But in a sense this accurately mirrors American society, its cities, and socioeconomically diverse economies in general: Get less if you pay less, get more if you pay more.
On a more exciting note, it's not just the 6 parallel runways, which is a number that will be matched by a few other airports. More interestingly, it's also that, as far as I have been able to research, ORD will become the only airport in the world with 4 parallel runways that enjoy significant separation -- at least roughly 1 mile -- between them (so that 4 landings could take place simultaneously). There are a number of other airports that have 3 parallel runways with significant separation, but if those airports have added a 4th parallel runway, it has always been immediately adjacent to one of the 3 and I believe this prevents the possibility of 4 arrival streams. And ORD and all other airports with 5th and 6th parallel runways have always built them immediately adjacent to another runway.
After the 2008 opening of the most recent runway, ORD began running 3 simultaneous arrival streams (you can see the three columns of approaching aircraft clearly when driving north from downtown along Lake Shore Drive, particularly during certain portions of the day). Even without switching to regular usage of 4 arrival streams, theoretically ORD could shift to 4 during heavy rain, snow, and fog to avert the delays that would otherwise be inevitable.