O Hare Airport

O'Hare also has a strong international presence, with flights to more than 60 foreign destinations. O'Hare was ranked fourth in 2005 of the United States' international gateways, with only John F.

Kennedy International Airport in New York City, Los Angeles International Airport, and Miami International Airport serving more foreign destinations.
O’Hare International Airport was voted the Best Airport in North America for the past nine years by readers of the U.S. Although O'Hare is Chicago's primary airport, Chicago Midway International Airport, the city's second airport, is about six miles closer to the Loop, the main business and financial district.


History
The airport was constructed between 1942 and 1943 as a manufacturing plant for Douglas C-54s during World War II.

The site was chosen for its proximity to the city and transportation. Orchard Place was a small pre-existing community in the area, and the airport was known during the war as Orchard Place Airport/Douglas Field (hence the call sign ORD).In 1945, the facility was chosen by the City of Chicago as the site for a facility to meet future aviation demands. Edward "Butch" O'Hare, a World War II flying ace who was awarded the Medal of Honor.
By the early 1950s, Chicago Midway International Airport, which had been the primary Chicago airport since 1931, had become too small and crowded despite multiple expansions and was unable to handle the planned first generation of jets.

The City of Chicago and FAA began to develop O'Hare as the main airport for Chicago's future. At this time of writing, United serves its flagship hub with 650 daily departures, but the carrier's utilization of O'Hare peaked at over 1,000 daily flights in 1994.
O'Hare Airport is municipally connected to the city of Chicago via a narrow strip of land, approximately 200 feet wide, running along Higgins Rd from the Des Plaines river to the airport.

This land was annexed into the city limits in the 1950s to assure the airport was contiguous with the city to keep it under city control. On October 31, 1994, American Eagle Flight 4184 crashed upon approach into Chicago O'Hare Airport in Northwestern Indiana, killing all 68 passengers on board.On July 19, 1989, United Airlines Flight 232 from Denver en route to Chicago, crash landed in Sioux City, Iowa, killing 111 people on board. On December 27, 1968, Convair Flight 458 crashed into a hangar at Chicago O'Hare killing 27 onboard and 1 on the ground.

Incidents
On October 8, 2001, on American Airlines Flight 1238, en route from Los Angeles to Chicago, a psychotic passenger stormed the cockpit 40 minutes before landing in Chicago, causing the plane to drop sharply and causing a panic. The Federal Aviation Administration was notified of the incident; however, FAA controllers denied seeing anything and a preliminary check of radar found nothing out of the ordinary.

The FAA concluded that the object was a weather phenomenon.

For more details on this topic, see Chicago O'Hare UFO sighting 2006.

Modernization plan
O'Hare's high volume and crowded schedule can lead to long delays and cancellations that, due to the airport being a major hub, can affect air travel across the United States. Because of the air traffic departing, arriving, and near the airport, air traffic controllers at O'Hare and its nearby facilities are among the leaders in the world in terms of number of controlled flights per hour.
City management has committed to a $6 billion capital investment plan to increase the airport's capacity by 60% and decrease delays by an estimated 79 percent.Also, airplanes will be capable of arriving and departing more quickly, despite Chicago's occasional extreme winter weather. Terminals 3 and 5 will undergo expansion, and a new west terminal is planned with western access into the airport; however, some land acquisition is necessary, requiring approximately 2,800 residents to be relocated.

For complete information on flights to and from Chicago O'Hare International Airport, please see the airport's website.
Chicago O'Hare International Airport provides 186 aircraft gates throughout 4 Terminals (1, 2, 3, 5) and 9 concourses (B, C, E, F, G, H, K, L, M)
Terminal 1 (United Airlines Terminal)
Note: International Arrivals are handled in Terminal 5.


Terminal 1 Layout



Destinations with direct service from O'Hare



Terminal 1 - Concourse B



Terminal 1 - Concourse C



Terminal 1 - Concourse B/C Tunnel for Connecting Passengers



Secondary picture of the so-called "tunnel of love"



Terminal 2 Layout

Terminal 1 provides 53 Gates on 2 Concourses:
Concourse B
Concourse B has 21 Gates: B1–B12, B14–B21, B22, B22(A,B)
United Airlines (Albany, Amsterdam, Aruba, Atlanta, Baltimore/Washington, Beijing, Boise, Boston, Bozeman , Buffalo, Burlington (VT), Cabo San Lucas, Calgary, Charlotte, Cincinnati/Northern Kentucky, Cleveland, Columbus (OH), Cozumel, Dallas/Fort Worth, Dayton, Denver, Des Moines, Detroit, Fort Myers , Frankfurt, Grand Cayman, Grand Rapids, Greensboro , Harrisburg, Hartford/Springfield, Hong Kong, Honolulu, Houston-Intercontinental, Indianapolis, Jackson Hole, Jacksonville, Kahului, Kansas City, Kona, Liberia (CR) , London-Heathrow, Los Angeles, Manchester (NH), Minneapolis/St. Since the opening of Terminal 5, Terminal 4 has been changed into the airport's facility for CTA buses, hotel shuttles, and other ground transportation.

Runways 14L-32R, 14R-32L, 9L-27R and 10-28 have Category III ILS (Instrument Landing System). It is also part of the first line of the song, "It was a plane ride from LAX to O'Hare..." The song signifies the band's lead singer William Beckett losing his song lyric book at the O'Hare airport immediately before recording the band's second album, Santi.
In the sixth season of the hit CBS show The Amazing Race, eleven teams of two began their race at Chicago's O'Hare International Airport, where they boarded flights to either Minneapolis, Minnesota, Boston, Massachusetts, or Baltimore, Maryland and connected to Keflavík, Iceland.
Many scenes of the airline-themed FOX TV show The Loop presumably take place at O'Hare, as the show is set partly at a large international airport in the Chicago area.