jcwr56 wrote:
It's nice to know you believe UA and AA are going to breach the agreement with the City by just ignoring what they agreed too. Got it...
Air Italy got access at good times, same with TAP....So there's capacity it seems.
I don't think they are going to breach the agreement by any means, and why would they have to? The agreement is in their favor to begin with. Per the New AULA, Section 5.1.1:
Under the new agreement, gates will be assigned for PREFERENTIAL use by a PARTICULAR LONG-TERM SIGNATORY AIRLINE
or retained by the City for common use.
This article is clearly in favor of UA and AA and allows them to keep their current gate facilities within their current working Terminals - T1 and T3. The city is going to give them preferential treatment to continue to operate business as unusual at ORD.
What the agreement does allow the city to do per Article 5.5-5.8 of the New AULA:
If an airline needs access to a gate to accommodate a flight and cannot accommodate that flight in it owns preferential gate, then that airline can go directly to the city and request accommodation.
This means that UA or AA cannot say no to an airline if they need immediate access to gate on Concourse B,C H, or K for an inbound flight which that said airline cannot accommodate because all of their preferential gates are currently being used. In the past AA and UA could and that created gridlock around the airport for airlines like DL or NK who had planes waiting to unload passengers and took lengthy delays. Now, those same airlines can park wherever there is an open gate. This article was created more so for redevelopment of T2 into a new Global Terminal and Concourse...for once T2 is demolished there will be significantly less gates throughout the airport and EVERY airline is going to need to share their gates in order for the airport to continue to function as normal as possible.
Finally, and this is where it really shows that UA and AA are the big kids on the block, is Article 5.3 of the New AULA which states:
The agreement provide the City the right to reallocate gate rights on an annual basis starting in 2021...Any gates that have not been designated as common use will them be assigned to LONG-TERM SIGNATORY AIRLINES based on their relative utilization,
which is based on each airlines number of scheduled departures from the Airport.
Gee, I wonder who has the most departures at ORD on a daily basis? So there is no need for UA or AA to breach the agreement. It's basically written in their favor anyway.
