Oct 29, 2008 4:29 pm US/Central
O'Hare To Remove Flight Caps
New Runway To Provide Added Capacity
CHICAGO (CBS) ―
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Airline ticket counter agents help passengers, O'Hare International Airport, Chicago, Illinois. (File)
AP
A lot of frequent fliers complain about bottlenecks at O'Hare Airport. And much of the time those delays involve flights to New York. CBS 2's Derrick Blakley reports Chicago's been getting a bad rap even though it's worked very hard to improve traffic flow at O'Hare.
If Chicagoans are looking for another reason to hate New York, they can find it at O'Hare.
"New York is probably one of the worst destinations I travel to on a frequent basis, especially when you're going to LaGuardia or JFK," said O'Hare passenger Nils Clark.
And the transportation secretary came to O'Hare Wednesday to confirm just how bad it is.
"Fewer than half the flights between Chicago and New York's three airports were on time this summer," said Mary Peters, U.S. Transportation Secretary. "That compares to 80 percent on time for other flights at O'Hare."
To help ease the New York gridlock, the Feds are cracking down, instituting flight caps at all three Gotham airports.
By contrast, at O'Hare, flight caps slapped on four years ago are being lifted, starting Friday.
"This city has literally moved mountains to get the operations back on track," Peters said.
O'Hare's flight caps were the result of the nightmare summer of 2004 when frustrated passengers fumed over repeated delays that rippled through the air traffic system nationwide. But since then, record-high fuel costs led airlines to cut flights voluntarily, easing delays.
The upcoming opening of O'Hare's new runway, scheduled for next month, will provide some added capacity.
"We believe that with the new capacity, taking the caps off is the right thing to do," Peters said.
What's more, lifting the flight caps could open O'Hare to more discount airlines with lower fares.
"There's a lot of discounters that fly around the country that have shied away from O'Hare," said aviation expert Joe Schwieterman. "This will give them a chance to expand or add service to O'Hare."
The transportation department reports, in the second quarter, airfares rose 11 percent at O'Hare, and 17 percent at Midway - largely the result of soaring fuel prices. But because it is dominated by discount airlines like Southwest, Midway still had the fourth lowest fares of any airport in the country.
(© MMIX, CBS Broadcasting Inc. All Rights Reserved.)
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