CHICAGO: ORD & MDW discussion

[ardecila]

Originally Posted by jonesrmj

Overall, this looks like a big upgrade for Delta's operations out of ORD, especially considering that ORD isn't a hub or even focus city for Delta! I wonder if Delta would consider adding more destinations from ORD now that they have more gate space.

Kind of a special case maybe. Isn't Delta the default choice for business flights Chicago-New York because they dominate the slots at LGA? That's a pretty wealthy market of air travelers.

[Steely Dan]

Originally Posted by ardecila

Isn't Delta the default choice for business flights Chicago-New York because they dominate the slots at LGA?

ORD to LGA (weekday):

american: 15x daily
united: 12x daily
delta: 8x daily



MDW to LGA (weekday):

southwest: 6x daily



ORD to EWR (weekday):

united: 11x daily
american: 6x daily



ORD to JFK (weekday):

delta: 4x daily
jet blue: 3x daily
american: 2x daily

[twister244]

I am so booking my next flight out of T5 on Delta now!

What a beautiful looking lounge..... It looks like this, and the gates they are using are part of the new construction that was built on the front part of the existing T5, no? I was actually thinking of hopping over to Europe for a month of remote work next month, so this is a good excuse to book tickets lol.

[woodrow]

According to an article in Crain's, you can access two gates directly from the lounge. One mainly for the 12 flights to NY and another for Delta's international partners. Really fabulous perk. I imagine the United and American will do something similar in the new Terminal 2

[OhioGuy]

Terminal 5 looks nice, though it's a little inconvenient to be completely separate from the CTA station. Having to take the ATS adds extra time if arriving or leaving via the blue line, vs simply just walking down to the tunnel from the baggage claims for terminals 1, 2, & 3 (granted it's probably not an excessive amount of extra time).

[ardecila]

Originally Posted by Steely Dan

ORD to LGA (weekday):

Thanks - I thought Delta had a shuttle operation from ORD to LGA? Guess not.

[FlashingLights]

Originally Posted by OhioGuy

United Airlines to add nonstop flights to Shannon, Ireland and Barcelona, Spain

OMG flying to Madrid and then having to get to Barcelona was always a pain. This is amazing!! I hope this route is successful Barcelona is one of my favorites cities.

[twister244]

Great article over at YIMBY showing off the new wing of T5

https://chicagoyimby.com/2022/10/a-l...l-airport.html

Aside from the parking garage, new amenities in the extension, maybe some baggage handling work - The T5 is mostly done at this point. I would assume there might be some shuffling still of routes over to the new gates, and wrapping up tail-end work with T5 before shovels hit the ground on the sats.

Unless there's other headwinds preventing work on the next phase happening sooner than later?

[rivernorthlurker]

Originally Posted by twister244

Great article over at YIMBY showing off the new wing of T5

https://chicagoyimby.com/2022/10/a-l...l-airport.html

Aside from the parking garage, new amenities in the extension, maybe some baggage handling work - The T5 is mostly done at this point. I would assume there might be some shuffling still of routes over to the new gates, and wrapping up tail-end work with T5 before shovels hit the ground on the sats.

Unless there's other headwinds preventing work on the next phase happening sooner than later?

Exciting to see. I thought it wasn't operating until next spring/summer.

From HoK's website - it looks like some of the finishes will be added over the coming months hopefully. That center thing should be a video screen as well. Hopefully all the wood and stuff gets added like in the renderings. Things will feel a bit nicer when they do.

https://www.hok.com/projects/view/ch...l-5-expansion/



https://www.hok.com/news/2019-03/hok...ional-airport/

You can see the unfinished space for the vendor spots below in the Yimby article.

[ardecila]

Hmm... I don't know if those wood accents are coming. The renderings on the HOK website seem to be the latest ones; the other ones you posted don't really match what was built. In the HOK renderings I don't see any wood, just lots of assorted furniture out of a catalog. The wait times on contract furniture these days are insane so it looks like they are using temporary furniture to get the terminal open.

I like the design though. Reminds me of other high-profile new terminals like T1 at SFO or the new terminals at LGA.

[rivernorthlurker]

Originally Posted by twister244

Great article over at YIMBY showing off the new wing of T5

https://chicagoyimby.com/2022/10/a-l...l-airport.html

Aside from the parking garage, new amenities in the extension, maybe some baggage handling work - The T5 is mostly done at this point. I would assume there might be some shuffling still of routes over to the new gates, and wrapping up tail-end work with T5 before shovels hit the ground on the sats.

Unless there's other headwinds preventing work on the next phase happening sooner than later?

Delta at least has already 'shuffled' over to Terminal 5 on the 12th. Apparently their new SkyLounge is operational there I think.

Edit: Actually it is as someone posted pics above. Thanks!

https://www.aviacionline.com/2022/10...to-terminal-5/

[rivernorthlurker]

Originally Posted by ardecila

Hmm... I don't know if those wood accents are coming. Probably just assorted furniture out of a catalog, but the wait times on contract furniture these days are insane.

I like the design though. Reminds me of other high-profile new terminals like T1 at SFO or the new terminals at LGA.

Yeah totally. It's a bit like a house before you add any furnishings. Once the vendors move in and there's some more furniture delivered things will feel a bit better. Same with the video screen in the middle (and the guy playing the piano underneath lol).

Those wooden sitting areas would be a nice touch - hopefully they are added whatever they are. It's hard to tell from the latest renderings on HoK as the angles aren't quite the same. But I could see them getting axed as the first link I posted were renderings pre-covid from 2019. They're probably non covid kosher or something.

[rivernorthlurker]

Originally Posted by ardecila

I like the design though. Reminds me of other high-profile new terminals like T1 at SFO or the new terminals at LGA.

HoK partnered in this design and they also designed Terminal B at LGA.

https://www.hok.com/projects/market/...ransportation/

[F1 Tommy]

Air New Zealand flights should be back at ORD again in a week finally. Last flights in February 2020, other than a few cargo flights during Covid.

[lakeshoredrive]

Why can't the old terminal 5 be renamed to T4 while the new expansion can be T5.

[jonesrmj]

Originally Posted by lakeshoredrive

Why can't the old terminal 5 be renamed to T4 while the new expansion can be T5.

The Global Terminal is replacing Terminal 2 so it's not like they are adding another terminal.

[jonesrmj]

The Terminal 5 expansion looks good, albeit a little bare. I'm sure though that it'll look a lot better once they get the new businesses open and maybe decorate it a little more. Have they added the new permanent jetways that connect directly to the expanded part, and if so, do some of the gates have dual jet bridges for widebodies like originally in the renderings? I'd imagine that at minimum, Gate M29/M30 has two jet bridges since it's A380 capable like Gate M17 is.

[twister244]

Originally Posted by jonesrmj

The Terminal 5 expansion looks good, albeit a little bare. I'm sure though that it'll look a lot better once they get the new businesses open and maybe decorate it a little more. Have they added the new permanent jetways that connect directly to the expanded part, and if so, do some of the gates have dual jet bridges for widebodies like originally in the renderings? I'd imagine that at minimum, Gate M29/M30 has two jet bridges since it's A380 capable like Gate M17 is.

I fly to London tomorrow evening on an A380 - I will scope it out

[jonesrmj]

Originally Posted by twister244

I fly to London tomorrow evening on an A380 - I will scope it out

You'll probably fly out of Gate M17 because that's the gate that British Airways has been using for their A380 service.

[tintinex]

Yesterday I had the opportunity to use the below level hallway coming into the new T5 towards the customs area as I was coming home from London. I would have to say, I almost feel that while it smelled like new, the actual user experience is definitely worse than it was before, at least for now.

It was a much longer walk, definitely over 10 minutes through a very bland hallway underground. Very sparse moving walkways (one wasn't working), but the most bizarre part that from very early on, they had soft divided the walkway on Global entry left and everyone else to the right with the divided belts in between, so for almost the entire 10 minute walk they prevented people on the left from using the moving walkways, only to have the lines joined at the end right before the escalator into the customs area, so the entire divide was worthless, and the no less than 4 agents asking sporadically "global entry to the left" were essentially there for nothing.

I understand that this is just a soft opening and that the whole terminal won't be ready until 2024, but after being at Heathrow and seeing how great their airport is and how much they care about people flow even though some of the walks are even longer than 15 minutes, it was a slight disappointment.

Also very jealous of London's Heathrow express line and the brand new Elizabeth line and would love to see trains and stations like that in Chicago, one can dream

Some photos I took below