Mayor Rahm Emanuel broke out a string of strong adjectives on Monday as he began to sell an $8.5 billion expansion of O’Hare International Airport, calling his vision to catapult the major travel hub into the 21st century “once-in-a-lifetime,” “watershed,” “unprecedented” and “the gold standard.”
Emanuel echoed top aides in saying no taxpayer dollars would be used to bankroll the plan. And unlike previous O’Hare runway projects, the mayor said his push to add a state-of-the-art terminal, dozens of new gates and several additional concourses would not rely on any federal funding.
“This is a game changer for the city of Chicago. This is a watershed moment,” Emanuel said in his first public comments about the project. “I made a pledge that the city of Chicago, O’Hare, will not be measured by the busiest, but by being the best, by having a runway system that is the most efficient in the United States, by having a terminal system that’s the most modern in the United States.”
In an exclusive interview with the Chicago Tribune published Sunday, Aviation Commissioner Ginger Evans outlined the eight-year plan, which would mark the single largest and most expensive terminal revamp in O’Hare’s 73-year history. The revamp is possible in part because the airlines’ 35-year lease with the city expires in May and a new agreement will charge the carriers higher rent at O’Hare, among other fees.
The 55-year-old Terminal 2 would be torn down to make way for a new “Global Terminal” with wider concourses and gates to accommodate large international flights. Terminals 1, 3 and 5 would be renovated, two new satellite concourses would be built and connected by a pedestrian tunnel, the space for planes to park at gates would increase by 25 percent, and more than 3.1 million square feet of terminal space would be added to O’Hare — a 72 percent increase.
The potential deal is still subject to final negotiations with the airlines, and representatives for United Airlines, American Airlines and Delta Air Lines have declined to discuss specifics about a potential expansion, citing the talks. Emanuel could introduce a finalized agreement at Wednesday’s City Council meeting.
Once built, the expansion would increase the O’Hare’s total number of passengers from 78 million in 2016 to around 100 million by 2026, city officials predict.
On Monday, Emanuel zeroed in one particular aspect of his plan — O’Hare becoming the nation’s first “global alliance hub,” where domestic carriers and their international partner airlines are located in the same terminal. Such a setup is appealing to the airlines for faster connection times, consumers for better convenience and to Emanuel as a coveted selling point no other U.S. city can claim.
“This is a once-in-a-lifetime moment to literally leap frog the competition. … To me, this is essential for the vitality of the city,” Emanuel said. “You’ll be able to go seamlessly from an international to a domestic flight and vice versa with ease for the commuter and in a way that the city of Chicago will be the gold standard in the United States for aviation and transportation.”
The westward expansion on new satellite concourses and a new global terminal are now possible after years of work to realign O’Hare’s runways from an outdated layout of six intersecting runways to an airfield that will have six parallel runways and two diagonal ones. Much of that work (the final east-west runway will open in 2020) came thanks to $1.1 billion in federal grants from President Barack Obama’s administration and a Department of Transportation led by former Republican U.S. Rep. Ray LaHood of Peoria.
This time around, though, Emanuel said he will not have to rely on the federal government to get the major terminal expansion completed. Instead, the city will borrow against future increased fees and charges the airlines will pay under the new lease agreement.
The city also will be able to count on a future increase in revenue from passenger facilities charges — a fee tacked onto airline tickets — because more travelers will be coming through O’Hare. City officials, however, said an increase in the facilities charge itself, which is limited by the federal government, is not included in the plan.
“The fees that will back this up come out of the future in terms of what use will be there. It does not require federal money,” Emanuel said. “The increased traffic, in a positive way, the increased traffic at O’Hare that is going to give us the resources. We will bond that, use it to make all the investments today, because we see the growth that is coming in the future. And that’s not going to require the federal government.”
Even if Emanuel wanted to count on federal grants, that prospect would be uncertain at best. The mayor frequently has railed against Republican President Donald Trump’s immigration policies, and the president frequently singles out Chicago for its struggles with gun violence. Trump, however, also has expressed an interest in pushing major infrastructure spending and has said improving the nation’s airports should be a priority.
A year ago, Trump convened a meeting of top airport and airline officials, including City Hall’s Evans, to prioritize the issue. Not much has materialized since, however.
“Airports are very important to me. Travel is very important to me,” Trump said in February 2017. “Our airports used to be the best. Now, they’re at the bottom of the rung.”
Emanuel’s push to overhaul O’Hare was lauded by some business leaders Monday.
Chicago’s airport system is one of its most important assets for attracting and retaining businesses, bringing in tourists and moving goods and cargo, said Chicagoland Chamber of Commerce President and CEO Jack Lavin. In a survey of chamber members, 63 percent said the proximity of Chicago’s airports was one of the top three aspects of Chicagoland that contributed to the success of their businesses.
“We need this kind of investment, innovation and modernization to make O’Hare the best in the country,” he said.
Upgrades at O’Hare are badly needed, said Wayne Urbanek, president of the Chicago Business Travel Association.
“The general consensus of business travelers is it’s old, it’s outdated, and it needs to be modernized,” Urbanek said. “It’s long past its useful life, and it also has a reputation for extensive and terrible delays and missed connections that cost business travelers time and money.”
The Tribune’s Lauren Zumbach and Robert Channick contributed.
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