CHI787ORD wrote:

piedmontf284000 wrote:

BB78710 wrote:

I think people will figure it out fairly quickly. The good thing about Chicago is there are enough arterial streets running North/South and then East/West where the traveling public will have options to avoid 90/94 if they so choose.

I think one of the best things Chicago has going for it during this construction is the fact the city is built on a grid system. For those who know the city they know how to get to O'Hare without having to use that stretch of 90/94 that will be under construction for at least 2 years. One can only hope this project doesn't turn into the nightmare disaster the Jane Byrne Interchanged turned into..... But again we are talking about Chicago when is the last time a construction project was completed on-time and on budget????

Speaking of construction projects completed on-time. Flew into T5 Thursday and the line for the CBP was 1 hr and 50 minutes, mind you this was a Thursday...in MARCH! We came into M36 on Iberia and proceeded thru the new corridors underneath the new expansion. My son actually did distance on his phone from gate to booth and it was a whopping 1/4 mile walk (1267 steps). There are only two moving walkways that are still a good walking distance just to get to and there was another walkway that was either not yet operational or broken, we couldn't tell. On top of that the wheelchair que was over 100 people long. Double lines of wheelchairs with people in them as far as the eye could see and no assistants anywhere to be found to push these people. All passengers whether US or not get fed into the same line. I cannot stress how poorly this is reflecting on the airport. I heard countless times from people standing in line, "I will never fly thru this airport again", "I am going to miss my connection", and my favorite "is this Chicago or some third world country".

I understand that there is a lot of construction going on, but the planning logistics for this are abysmal. The CDA seems to have really dropped the ball on this. They should have kept open the north end of T-5 for Int'l arrivals until the south expansion was fully completed before allowing Delta to move over. The moving walkways and a completed CBP area still seem to be months away and the summer crush is approaching very quickly and ORD is not going to be ready. The other issue at T5 is the ATS. There is just not enough train cars and frequency to handle all the passengers. We waited two trains before finally getting on one because the line extended to the escalators. It seems the city is more concerned with completing the parking garage ($$$) at T5 then then the terminal itself. Just dreadful.

I arrived from DOH at 4PM last week and I concur, immigration is a total mess. I have global entry so for me personally it was a breeze but the line for everyone else lasted over an hour. It’s really a horrible way to land into the US after a 15 hour flight. It looked like the new immigration booths are coming along so hopefully that new section opens up soon. But still, even after all the new immigration booths will there still be enough capacity at T5 to avoid these lines from getting too long? I’m worried this is going to be a permanent feature at T5.

jcwr56 wrote:

CHI787ORD wrote:

piedmontf284000 wrote:

Speaking of construction projects completed on-time. Flew into T5 Thursday and the line for the CBP was 1 hr and 50 minutes, mind you this was a Thursday...in MARCH! We came into M36 on Iberia and proceeded thru the new corridors underneath the new expansion. My son actually did distance on his phone from gate to booth and it was a whopping 1/4 mile walk (1267 steps). There are only two moving walkways that are still a good walking distance just to get to and there was another walkway that was either not yet operational or broken, we couldn't tell. On top of that the wheelchair que was over 100 people long. Double lines of wheelchairs with people in them as far as the eye could see and no assistants anywhere to be found to push these people. All passengers whether US or not get fed into the same line. I cannot stress how poorly this is reflecting on the airport. I heard countless times from people standing in line, "I will never fly thru this airport again", "I am going to miss my connection", and my favorite "is this Chicago or some third world country".

I understand that there is a lot of construction going on, but the planning logistics for this are abysmal. The CDA seems to have really dropped the ball on this. They should have kept open the north end of T-5 for Int'l arrivals until the south expansion was fully completed before allowing Delta to move over. The moving walkways and a completed CBP area still seem to be months away and the summer crush is approaching very quickly and ORD is not going to be ready. The other issue at T5 is the ATS. There is just not enough train cars and frequency to handle all the passengers. We waited two trains before finally getting on one because the line extended to the escalators. It seems the city is more concerned with completing the parking garage ($$$) at T5 then then the terminal itself. Just dreadful.

I arrived from DOH at 4PM last week and I concur, immigration is a total mess. I have global entry so for me personally it was a breeze but the line for everyone else lasted over an hour. It’s really a horrible way to land into the US after a 15 hour flight. It looked like the new immigration booths are coming along so hopefully that new section opens up soon. But still, even after all the new immigration booths will there still be enough capacity at T5 to avoid these lines from getting too long? I’m worried this is going to be a permanent feature at T5.

It's an organized mess...and without getting into much detail. CBP has a set level of staffing which the City and airlines has zero control over and right now it's trying to find a balance of the amount of officers needed based on loads. Somewhat in the near future, you'll see the hall split to USC versus non USC's, which should tremendously help with processing. A little fun fact; almost 88% of passengers arriving into T5 are USC's.

As for wheelchairs, this falls on the DOT to blame, anyone can request a chair and what is being seen are non native english speakers requesting chairs so they can be hand walked between T5 and the rest of the airport. When you have airlines requesting over 100 chairs per flight, you know something is wrong with the system.

The harden border concept and biometrics will make the processing time and ability to exit the hall far more quickly and move everything along, but to get to that point there's going to be bumps in the road.

EWR22LAS25 wrote:

Tornado warnings issued for Cook County and NW Illinois through 01APR2023 0300GMT.

Strap in, should be an interesting evening.

SRQLOT wrote:

EWR22LAS25 wrote:

Tornado warnings issued for Cook County and NW Illinois through 01APR2023 0300GMT.

Strap in, should be an interesting evening.

I managed to fly into MDW today and looking at flight radar right now, many many cancellations coming up for this afternoon and evening.

I’m staying in Plainfield and we are watching an ugly line coming in from Peoria right now that is at that perfect angle to hit us and follow I55 to MDW.

EWR22LAS25 wrote:

There's a Ground Stop in effect for ORD right now.

SRQLOT wrote:

EWR22LAS25 wrote:

Tornado warnings issued for Cook County and NW Illinois through 01APR2023 0300GMT.

Strap in, should be an interesting evening.

I managed to fly into MDW today and looking at flight radar right now, many many cancellations coming up for this afternoon and evening.

I’m staying in Plainfield and we are watching an ugly line coming in from Peoria right now that is at that perfect angle to hit us and follow I55 to MDW.

emcm541 wrote:

EWR22LAS25 wrote:

There's a Ground Stop in effect for ORD right now.

SRQLOT wrote:

I managed to fly into MDW today and looking at flight radar right now, many many cancellations coming up for this afternoon and evening.

I’m staying in Plainfield and we are watching an ugly line coming in from Peoria right now that is at that perfect angle to hit us and follow I55 to MDW.

Some diversions to DTW and GRR already, lots of holds, but a few trying to land. Long night for ATC....

emcm541 wrote:

emcm541 wrote:

EWR22LAS25 wrote:

There's a Ground Stop in effect for ORD right now.

Some diversions to DTW and GRR already, lots of holds, but a few trying to land. Long night for ATC....

More diversions: LO3 to CLE

AmricanShamrok wrote:

EY151 (AUH-ORD) just landed on RWY27R - I don't think I've ever seen a widebody land on that runway...anyone know why it didn't land on the Cs like it usually does?

emcm541 wrote:

emcm541 wrote:

EWR22LAS25 wrote:

There's a Ground Stop in effect for ORD right now.

Some diversions to DTW and GRR already, lots of holds, but a few trying to land. Long night for ATC....

More diversions: LO3 to CLE

LAXPolaris wrote:

Flying out of ORD later this week, is the new United Club in the C concourse worth a visit, of if I'm in B should I just use one of those clubs?

yeogeo wrote:

LAXPolaris wrote:

Flying out of ORD later this week, is the new United Club in the C concourse worth a visit, of if I'm in B should I just use one of those clubs?

I would say definitely worth the walk through the tunnel. The new club in C is far away nicer than the B clubs and has a good view of the field.

gabik001 wrote:

AAL2611 to LAX just returned to ORD squawking 7700. They requested paramedical assistance but before landing they performed low pass @ 800ft AGL over 10C so I'm assuming that they experienced mechanical issue (flaps or landing gear). A/c is still on the runway so 10C is not available for arrivals as of 8:30pm

LAXPolaris wrote:

yeogeo wrote:

LAXPolaris wrote:

Flying out of ORD later this week, is the new United Club in the C concourse worth a visit, of if I'm in B should I just use one of those clubs?

I would say definitely worth the walk through the tunnel. The new club in C is far away nicer than the B clubs and has a good view of the field.

Cool I'll check it out then! Is the food any better, or same stuff they've been serving in the other clubs? And if it is, is the improved food only in the new club, or are they putting it in all of them?

SumChristianus wrote:

Just saw (2 hrs ago) at ORD what looked like a small corporate jet but with a logo/livery I could barely make out quite similar to that of AF1, the "United States of America" writing down the side. Is this a high up administration official visiting Chicago? I didn't know there were other liveried "United States of America" planes.

schernov wrote:

SumChristianus wrote:

Just saw (2 hrs ago) at ORD what looked like a small corporate jet but with a logo/livery I could barely make out quite similar to that of AF1, the "United States of America" writing down the side. Is this a high up administration official visiting Chicago? I didn't know there were other liveried "United States of America" planes.

USG has 757s, 737s and bunch of Gulfstreams

SumChristianus wrote:

schernov wrote:

SumChristianus wrote:

Just saw (2 hrs ago) at ORD what looked like a small corporate jet but with a logo/livery I could barely make out quite similar to that of AF1, the "United States of America" writing down the side. Is this a high up administration official visiting Chicago? I didn't know there were other liveried "United States of America" planes.

USG has 757s, 737s and bunch of Gulfstreams

Must have been a Gulfstream then, thanks. Do you know who they carry in the government? I assume I wouldn't be able to find it on FlightAware/FlightRadar but it landed on 28C at around 9:51 AM this morning.

United857 wrote:

yeogeo wrote:

Unusually, two UA ORD-HNL flights departing this morning within 5 minutes of each other.
The usual 78X at 09:35 - UA219 operating N13014
and, what I take as a charter? UA2792 operating 772 N780UA was scheduled 09:30 this Thursday the 6th.

UA219 is going to the north side, with UA2792 in queue on the south. Watching to see who takes to the air first

The 772 is probably on a ferry flight on its way to HKG or XMN for maintenance. They generally ferry US mainland-HNL-GUM-HKG/XMN

se210 wrote:

First time visit yesterday (3/27/2023) for Maersk Air Cargo to RFD with this new B767-300F (N493MM ; operated by Amerijet International; delivered 11/2022). Operated as AJT88/M688 .GSP-RFD.

yeogeo wrote:

LAXPolaris wrote:

yeogeo wrote:

I would say definitely worth the walk through the tunnel. The new club in C is far away nicer than the B clubs and has a good view of the field.

Cool I'll check it out then! Is the food any better, or same stuff they've been serving in the other clubs? And if it is, is the improved food only in the new club, or are they putting it in all of them?

The food? Nothing unusual, generally pretty healthy, nothing bad tasting or not fresh...what can I say...
There's food... and its free.
The Polaris Club food is a definite step up, IMHO

Just to add... the Terminal 2 Club is better than either of the ones in B, IMO. Excellent view of the south side of the field and design that is convenient and comfortable. It's a long way from the C gates but a possible option with a bit of a walk from the lower B's.

LAXPolaris wrote:

Seems like UA is using more gates in Terminal 2 now for mainline flights, not just express. Did they pick up more gates when DL moved to T5 or something?

yeogeo wrote:

LAXPolaris wrote:

Seems like UA is using more gates in Terminal 2 now for mainline flights, not just express. Did they pick up more gates when DL moved to T5 or something?

Correct - they've claimed most of the former DL gates in the upper E's.

LAXPolaris wrote:

yeogeo wrote:

LAXPolaris wrote:

Seems like UA is using more gates in Terminal 2 now for mainline flights, not just express. Did they pick up more gates when DL moved to T5 or something?

Correct - they've claimed most of the former DL gates in the upper E's.

Oh wow I did not know that! What is their total gate count up to now at ORD?

Also, wonder if UA would take the former DL SkyClub space? Or since that terminal is going to be coming down eventually (is that project ever starts) is it not worth building a new club?

yeogeo wrote:

se210 wrote:

First time visit yesterday (3/27/2023) for Maersk Air Cargo to RFD with this new B767-300F (N493MM ; operated by Amerijet International; delivered 11/2022). Operated as AJT88/M688 .GSP-RFD.

Came across this info from 4 April on what turns out to be an interesting alternating pair of flights:
"Maersk Air has continued its bullish approach to bringing capacity to market with the launch of two China-US routes... The container line/air cargo carrier announced two twice-weekly services, linking Greenville-Spartanburg with Shenyang Taoxian and Chicago Rockford and Hangzhou Xiaoshan, both expected to rise to thrice-weekly next month."
https://theloadstar.com/capacity-confident-maersk-air-now-adds-china-us-flights/

• M61020.HGH-ICN-ANC-RFD
• M61021.RFD-ANC-ICN-HGH

• N37556** B737 MAX 9 Delivered 3/30/23 UA2710 (BFI-RFD) / Positioning 4/6/23.. UA2734 (RFD-ORD)
• N17300... B737 MAX 8 Delivered 3/28/23 UA2702 (BFI-RFD) / Positioning 4/3/23.. UA2746 (RFD-ORD) / 1st Rev Flight 4/3/23 UA748 (ORD-SEA)
• N57299... B737 MAX 8 Delivered 3/16/23 UA2709 (BFI-RFD) / Positioning 3/23/23 UA2750 (RFD-CLE) ./ 1st Rev Flight 3/23/23 UA2142 (CLE-RSW)
• N37553** B737 MAX 9 Delivered 3/15/23 UA2707 (BFI-RFD) / Positioning 3/23/23 UA2751 (RFD-IAD) ../ 1st Rev Flight 3/23/23 UA1842 (IAD-DEN)
  
  ** Coincidentially, many of the UA Boeing 737 MAX 9s with registrations starting with N375.. were once worn by UA DC-6 aircraft. Here are two examples (N37522 and N37532):
  
  

United1 wrote:

LAXPolaris wrote:

yeogeo wrote:

Correct - they've claimed most of the former DL gates in the upper E's.

Oh wow I did not know that! What is their total gate count up to now at ORD?

Also, wonder if UA would take the former DL SkyClub space? Or since that terminal is going to be coming down eventually (is that project ever starts) is it not worth building a new club?

As there is already a remodeled UA Club in T2 probably not. The spaces are not adjacent to each other so growing the existing club that way isn't really possible.

se210 wrote:

Here are the Chicago Rockford and Hangzhou Xiaoshan flight numbers currently operated by the Maersk Air B767-300F N493MM:

• M61020.HGH-ICN-ANC-RFD
• M61021.RFD-ANC-ICN-HGH

yeogeo wrote:

Answer me this: Aside from BA's A380 and Lufti's 748 service, what other 4-engined pax flight is now a regular at O'Hare?

It's the MUC/ORD LH#434/435 A346 service - She's arguably the rarest of all reg sched birds at O'Hare these days, having taken over the route in late March from Lufthansa's A359's.

In my opinion one of the most graceful aircraft in flight. Seeing a take-off of one of these birds is a moment of beauty!

LAXPolaris wrote:

So UA has had 3x daily ORD-LHR basically all winter, and then in June it reduces to 2x daily, and then after the peak summer season is over it goes back to 3x daily? Why is this? I saw some discussion it was to make space for the new 2nd daily LAX-LHR, but that isn’t true, as they are both operating right now. EWR-LHR is also losing a frequency during the peak summer season. Is this Heathrow imposing restrictions like they did last year?

Should’ve upgraded ORD-LHR to a larger plane, 2x daily on the high J 767 is not enough, especially economy seats. The west coast hubs (both LAX and SFO) as well as DEN have more capacity this summer than Chicago, that doesn’t seem right…

LHUSA wrote:

LAXPolaris wrote:

So UA has had 3x daily ORD-LHR basically all winter, and then in June it reduces to 2x daily, and then after the peak summer season is over it goes back to 3x daily? Why is this? I saw some discussion it was to make space for the new 2nd daily LAX-LHR, but that isn’t true, as they are both operating right now. EWR-LHR is also losing a frequency during the peak summer season. Is this Heathrow imposing restrictions like they did last year?

Should’ve upgraded ORD-LHR to a larger plane, 2x daily on the high J 767 is not enough, especially economy seats. The west coast hubs (both LAX and SFO) as well as DEN have more capacity this summer than Chicago, that doesn’t seem right…

LHR mandating capacity like last summer, providing slot waivers…

LAXPolaris wrote:

LHUSA wrote:

LAXPolaris wrote:

So UA has had 3x daily ORD-LHR basically all winter, and then in June it reduces to 2x daily, and then after the peak summer season is over it goes back to 3x daily? Why is this? I saw some discussion it was to make space for the new 2nd daily LAX-LHR, but that isn’t true, as they are both operating right now. EWR-LHR is also losing a frequency during the peak summer season. Is this Heathrow imposing restrictions like they did last year?

Should’ve upgraded ORD-LHR to a larger plane, 2x daily on the high J 767 is not enough, especially economy seats. The west coast hubs (both LAX and SFO) as well as DEN have more capacity this summer than Chicago, that doesn’t seem right…

LHR mandating capacity like last summer, providing slot waivers…

Assumed so. Should’ve changed at least one of the ORD-LHR to a 787, not even close to enough capacity right now. Frankly, if slots are an issue at LHR, the way UA should be managing that is upgrading planes, they don’t fly their two largest planes to LHR and maybe they should.

Crosswind787 wrote:

It's cool that RFD is being used more and more for various reasons by the airlines.

se210 wrote:

...In addition to the AAR Corp maintenance flights we see from ORD-RFD for UA 737s, some new UA B737-8/-9 MAXs are being delivered from BFI to RFD (for induction/additional configuration) as reported on the United Airlines Fleet-2023 / Boeing 737MAX Production/Deliveries-2023 forum threads.

LAXPolaris wrote:

Assumed so. Should’ve changed at least one of the ORD-LHR to a 787, not even close to enough capacity right now. Frankly, if slots are an issue at LHR, the way UA should be managing that is upgrading planes, they don’t fly their two largest planes to LHR and maybe they should.

BB78710 wrote:

LAXPolaris wrote:

Assumed so. Should’ve changed at least one of the ORD-LHR to a 787, not even close to enough capacity right now. Frankly, if slots are an issue at LHR, the way UA should be managing that is upgrading planes, they don’t fly their two largest planes to LHR and maybe they should.

LHR is managing capacity over this coming summer they are not restricting landing slots.

Upguaging ORD-LHR to larger aircraft increases capacity which is what LHR is trying to keep down. United can't remove a 76L and then simply replace that lost capacity by putting much larger 787s on their remaining ORD-LHR flights.

schernov wrote:

yeogeo wrote:

Answer me this: Aside from BA's A380 and Lufti's 748 service, what other 4-engined pax flight is now a regular at O'Hare?

It's the MUC/ORD LH#434/435 A346 service - She's arguably the rarest of all reg sched birds at O'Hare these days, having taken over the route in late March from Lufthansa's A359's.

In my opinion one of the most graceful aircraft in flight. Seeing a take-off of one of these birds is a moment of beauty!

Aside from cargo - that's about it.
A380 wale is a cool site -I see it over the house on approach every day coming off the lake over Lawrence Avenue.

ORDfan wrote:

I'm not sure what you guys mean by 'regular,' but LX still sends their A343s as well.