Chicago O'Hare International Airport (IATA:ORD,ICAO:KORD,FAALID:ORD) is the primary international airport servingChicago,Illinois, United States, located on the city's Northwest Side, approximately 17 miles (27 km) northwest of theLoop business district. The airport is operated by the Chicago Department of Aviation[4] and covering 7,627 acres (11.92 sq mi; 30.87 km2).[5][6] O'Hare has non-stop flights to 249 destinations in North America, South America, the Caribbean, Europe, Africa, Asia, the Middle East and the North Atlantic region as of Summer 2024.[7][8] As of 2024, O'Hare is considered the most connected airport in the United States, and fifth most connected airport in the world.[9] It is also the world's fourth busiest airport and 16th largest airport.[10] It is the airport with the most runways in the world.[11]
Designed to be the successor to Chicago'sMidway International Airport, itself once nicknamed the "busiest square mile in the world", O'Hare began as an airfield serving aDouglas manufacturing plant forC-54 military transports duringWorld War II. It was renamed Orchard Field Airport in the mid-1940s and assigned the IATA codeORD. In 1949, it was renamed after aviatorEdward "Butch" O'Hare, the U.S. Navy's firstMedal of Honor recipient during World War II.[12][13] As the first major airport planned after World War II, O'Hare's innovative design pioneered concepts such as concourses, direct highway access to the terminal,jet bridges, and underground refueling systems.[14]
Soon after the opening ofChicago Municipal Airport in 1926, the City of Chicago realized more airport capacity would be needed. The city government investigated various sites in the 1930s but made little progress before America's entry intoWorld War II.[12]
O'Hare began as a manufacturing plant forDouglas C-54 Skymasters during World War II and adjoiningDouglas Field Airport.[22] The site was originally known as a small German-American farming community known asOrchard Place. The 2 million square feet (190,000 m2) plant, in the northeast corner of what is now the airport, needed easy access to the workforce of Chicago—the nation's second-largest city at the time, as well as needing railroads and location far from enemy threat. 655 C-54s were built at the plant, more than half of all produced. The airfield, from which the C-54s flew out, was known as Douglas Airport; initially, it had four 5,500-foot (1,700 m) runways.[12] This was also the location of the Army Air Force's 803rd Specialized Depot,[23] a unit charged with storing many captured enemy aircraft; a few representatives of this collection would eventually be transferred to theSmithsonian Institution'sNational Air and Space Museum.[24][25]
Douglas Company's contract ended with the war's conclusion. Douglas considered building airliners at Orchard but chose to concentrate civil production at its headquarters inSanta Monica, California.[12] With the departure of Douglas, the complex took the nameOrchard (Douglas) Airport, and was assigned the IATA codeORD. The only remaining building of the Douglas Aircraft Factory is the Administration building now used by the City of Chicago, Department of Aviation.[26]
TheUnited States Air Force used the field extensively during theKorean War; the airport then had no scheduled airline service. Although not its primary base in the area, the Air Force used O'Hare as a fighter base; it was home to the62nd Fighter-Interceptor Squadron flyingNorth American F-86 Sabres from 1950 to 1959.[27] By 1960, the need for O'Hare as an active duty fighter base was diminishing, just as commercial business was picking up at the airport. The Air Force removed active-duty units from O'Hare and turned the station over toContinental Air Command, enabling them to base reserve andAir National Guard units there.[28] As a result of a 1993 agreement between the City and theDepartment of Defense, the reserve base was closed on April 1, 1997, ending its career as the home of the928th Airlift Wing and of the126th Air Refueling Wing in 1999. At that time, the remaining 357-acre (144 ha) site came under the ownership of the Chicago Department of Aviation.[29]
In 1945, Chicago mayorEdward Kelly established a board to choose the site of a new airport to meet future demand. After considering various proposals, the board decided upon the Orchard Field site and acquired most of the federal government property in March 1946. The military retained a small parcel of property on the site and the right to use 25% of the airfield's operating capacity for free.[12]
Ralph H. Burke devised an airport master plan based on the pioneering idea of what he called "split finger terminals", allowing a terminal building to be attached to "airline wings" (concourses), each providing space for gates and planes. (Pre-war airport designs had favored ever-larger single terminals, exemplified byBerlin'sTempelhof.) Burke's design also included underground refueling, direct highway access to the front of terminals, and direct rail access from downtown, all of which are utilized at airports worldwide today.[14] O'Hare was the site of the world's firstjet bridge in 1958,[30][31] and successfully adaptedslip form paving, developed for the nation's newInterstate highway system, for seamless concrete runways.
In 1949, the City renamed the facility O'Hare Airport to honorEdward "Butch" O'Hare, the U.S. Navy's firstflying ace andMedal of Honor recipient inWorld War II.[32] However, its IATA code (ORD) remained unchanged, resulting in O'Hare being one of the few IATA codes bearing no connection to the airport's name or metropolitan area.[26]
Arrival of passenger service and subsequent growth
Scheduled passenger service began in 1955,[13] but growth was slow at first. Although Chicago had invested over $25 million in O'Hare,Midway remained the world's busiest airport and airlines were reluctant to move until highway access and other improvements were completed.[33] The April 1957Official Airline Guide listed 36 weekday departures from O'Hare, while Midway had 414. Improvements began to attract the airlines: O'Hare's first international terminal opened in August 1958, and by April 1959 the airport had expanded to 7,200 acres (2,900 ha) with new hangars, terminals, parking and other facilities. Theexpressway link to downtown Chicago, now known as theKennedy Expressway, was completed in 1960.[13] New Terminals2 and3, designed byC. F. Murphy and Associates, opened on January 1, 1962.[34]
The biggest factor driving airlines to relocate their operations from Midway to O'Hare was the jet airliner; the first scheduled jet at O'Hare was an American 707 from New York to Chicago to San Francisco on March 22, 1959.[35] One-mile-square (2.6-kilometer-square) Midway had no space for the runways that 707s and DC-8s required. Airlines had been reluctant to move to O'Hare, but they naturally did not want to split their operations: in July 1962, the last fixed-wing scheduled airline flight in Chicago moved from Midway to O'Hare. Until United returned in July 1964, Midway's only scheduled airline was Chicago Helicopter Airways. The arrival of Midway's traffic quickly made O'Hare the world's busiest airport, serving 10 million passengers annually. Within two years, that number would double, with Chicagoans boasting that more people passed through O'Hare in 12 months thanEllis Island had processed in its entire existence. O'Hare remained the world's busiest airport until it was eclipsed byHartsfield-Jackson Atlanta International Airport in 1998.
O'Hare had four runways in 1955;[36] 8,000 foot (2,400 m) runway 14R/32L opened in 1956 and was extended to 11,600 feet (3,500 m) a few years later, allowing nonstops to Europe. Runway 9R/27L (now 10L/28R) opened in 1968 and runway 4R/22L in 1971.
In the 1980s, after passage ofUS airline deregulation, the first major change at O'Hare occurred whenTWA left Chicago forSt. Louis as its main mid-continent hub.[37] Although TWA had a large hangar complex at O'Hare and had startedConstellation nonstops to Paris in 1958, by the time of deregulation its operation was losing $25 million a year under competition from United and American.[38]Northwest likewise ceded O'Hare to the competition and shifted to aMinneapolis/St. Paul andDetroit-centered network by the early 1990s after acquiringRepublic Airlines in 1986.[39]Delta maintained an O'Hare hub for some time, even commissioning a new ConcourseL in 1983.[40] Ultimately, Delta found competing from an inferior position at O'Hare too expensive and closed its Chicago hub in the 1990s, concentrating its upper Midwest operations atCincinnati.
The Terminal 1 underground tunnel connects Concourses B and C.
The dominant hubs established at O'Hare in the 1980s by United and American continue to operate today. United developed a new two-concourse Terminal1 (dubbed "The Terminal for Tomorrow"), designed byHelmut Jahn. It was built between 1985 and 1987 on the site of the original Terminal1; the structure, which includes 50 gates, is best known for its curved glass forms and the connecting underground tunnel between ConcoursesB andC.[41] The tunnel is illuminated with a neon installation titledSky's the Limit (1987) by Canadian artistMichael Hayden, which plays an airy, slow-tempo version ofRhapsody in Blue.[42] American renovated and expanded its existing facilities in Terminal3 from 1987 to 1990; those renovations feature a flag-lined entrance hall to ConcoursesH/K.[43]
The demolition of the original Terminal 1 in 1984 to make way for Jahn's design forced a "temporary" relocation of international flights into facilities called "Terminal4" on the ground floor of the airport's central parking garage. International passengers were then transferred by bus to and from their aircraft. Relocation finally ended with the completion of the 21-gate International Terminal in 1993 (now called Terminal5); it contains allcustoms facilities. Its location, on the site of the original cargo area and east of the terminal core, necessitated the construction ofa peoplemover, which connected the terminal core with the new terminal as well as remote rental and parking lots.[40]
Following deregulation and the buildup of the American and United hubs, O'Hare faced increasing delays from the late 1980s onward due to its inefficient runway layout; the airfield had remained unchanged since the addition of its last new runway (4R/22L) in 1971.[44] O'Hare's three pairs of angled runways were meant to allow takeoffs into the wind, but they came at a cost: the various intersecting runways were both dangerous and inefficient. Official reports at the end of the 1990s ranked O'Hare as one of the worst-performing airports in the United States based on the percentage of delayed flights.[45] In 2001, the Chicago Department of Aviation committed to an O'Hare Modernization Plan (OMP). Initially estimated at $6.6 billion, the OMP was to be paid by bonds issued against the increase in the federalpassenger facility charge enacted that year and federal airport improvement funds.[46] The modernization plan was approved by theFAA in October 2005 and involved a complete reconfiguration of the airfield. The OMP included the construction of four new runways, lengthening two existing runways, and decommissioning three old runways to provide O'Hare with six parallel runways and two crosswind runways.[47]
The OMP was the subject of legal battles, both with suburbs who feared the new layout's noise implications as well as with survivors of persons interred in a cemetery the city proposed to relocate; some of the cases were not resolved until 2011.[48] These issues, plus the reduction in traffic as a result of theGreat Recession, delayed the OMP's completion; construction of the sixth and final parallel runway (9C/27C) began in 2016.[49] Its completion in 2020, along with an extension of runway 9R/27L completed in 2021, concluded the OMP.[50]
Control tower and Terminals 3 and 2 seen from ATS (Airport Transit System)
In 2018, the city and airlines committed to PhaseI of a new Terminal Area Plan dubbed O'Hare 21. The plan calls for two all-new satellite concourses to the southwest of Concourse C, and to expand Terminals 2 and 5 with additional gates, lounges, and updates to operations all over the airport. (Terminal 5 has ten new gates in addition to its newly expanded facilities, plus two additional gates to each accommodate anAirbus A380.)[51] The expansion will enable same-terminal transfers between international and domestic flights, faster connections, improved facilities and technology forTSA andcustoms inspections and much larger landside amenities such as shopping and restaurants. A principal feature of the plan is the reorganization of the terminal core into an "alliance hub," the first in North America; airside connections and layout will be optimized aroundairline alliances. This will be made possible by the construction of theO'Hare Global Terminal (OGT) where Terminal2 currently stands. The OGT and two new satellite concourses will allow for expansion for both American's and United's international operations as well as easy interchange with their respectiveOneworld (American) andStar Alliance (United) partner carriers, eliminating the need to transfer to Terminal 5.
The project will add over 3 million square feet (280,000 m2) to the airport's terminals, add a newcustoms processing center in the OGT, reconstruct gates and concourses (new concourses will be a minimum of 150 feet (46 m) wide), increase the gate count from 185 to 235, and provide 25% more ramp space at every gate throughout the airport to accommodate larger aircraft.[52] After an international design competition that featured public voting on five final architectural proposals, the Studio ORD group, led by architectJeanne Gang (in collaboration with SCB,Corgan, Milhouse, and STL Architect), was selected to design the OGT,[53][54] whileSkidmore, Owings & Merrill LLP will design Satellites1 and2.[55] By terms of the agreement, total costs of $8.5 billion for the project are to be borne by bonds issued by the city, which will be retired by airport usage fees paid by airlines. O'Hare 21 is scheduled for completion of the two satellite terminals in 2028, and overall completion in 2030.[56][57][needs update]
By November 2023, the project's cost had ballooned far over budget, leading both American Airlines and United Airlines to call for the global terminal project to be cancelled or scaled back.[58] On May 3, 2024, American Airlines and United Airlines were able to reach an agreement with the City of Chicago to allow the project to continue. In the agreement, the replacement of Terminal 2 would be accelerated, while the addition of Satellite 2 concourse would be delayed. The replacement of Terminal 2 with the OGT was deemed more critical to complete first instead of the Satellite 2 concourse.[59][60] The design of Satellite 1 concourse was presented to the public on May 29, 2024, it was planned to complete Satellite 1 concourse by 2028.[61]
Terminal 2 is used for mostUnited Express and some United flights, as well as allAir Canada andJetBlue flights. It has 41 gates on two concourses, lettered E and F.[62]
Terminal 5 is used forDelta Air Lines,Frontier Airlines andSouthwest Airlines flights, as well as all international airlines that do not depart from Terminals 1–3.[63][64] Terminal 5 is also used for non-precleared international arrivals, as it currently contains the airport'sU.S. Customs and Border Protection facilities.[65] It has 35 non-sequential gates on a single concourse with the highest number being 40, lettered M. There are 3 gates in this terminal that can accommodate an Airbus A380, the largest commercial airplane in the world.[66]
Terminals 1–3 are connected airside via a walkway.[67] Terminal 5 is separated from the others by taxiways and does not have a walkway between it and Terminals 1–3; passengers transferring between Terminal 5 and the others can only do so landside via a shuttle bus or theAirport Transit System, requiring rescreening at security, or via an airside shuttle bus that runs between Terminal 5 and Terminals 1 and 3 every 15 minutes from 11:30 am to 9:30 pm.[67]
O'Hare has two sets of parallel runways, one on either side of the terminal complex. Each airfield has three parallel east–west runways (9L/27R, 9C/27C, and 9R/27L on the north side; 10L/28R, 10C/28C, and 10R/28L on the south side) and a crosswind runway oriented northeast–southwest (4L/22R on the north, 4R/22L on the south). The north crosswind runway, 4L/22R, sees limited usage due to intersecting 9R/27L and 9C/27C;[68] however, runway 22L is often used for takeoffs during what is called "west flow" on the main runways. The airfield is managed by threeFAAair traffic control towers. O'Hare has a voluntary nighttime (22:00–07:00)noise abatement program.[69]
In 2015, runway 32R/14L was permanently closed after 72 years of service, in favor of the new runway 10R/28L. In 2019, runway 32L/14R was also closed.[70]
Currently, O'Hare has the most runways of any civilian airport in the world, totaling eight.[71]
The Hilton Chicago O'Hare is between the terminal core and parking garage and is currently the only hotel on airport property. It is owned by the Chicago Department of Aviation and operated under an agreement withHilton Hotels, who extended their agreement with the city by ten years in 2018.[72]
TheAirport Transit System shuttles passengers between the terminal core (Terminals 1–3), Terminal 5, and the O'Hare Multi-Modal Facility (MMF).[73] The system, which re-opened on November 3, 2021, resumed round-the-clock service starting at 5 a.m. on Monday, April 18, 2022,[74] after a nearly six-year renovation.[75] Meanwhile, free shuttle buses also continue to run 24/7 and contribute to congestion, boarding on the upper (departures) level of all terminals. The Bus Shuttle center, located on the ground level of the parking garage between Terminals 1–3 and directly opposite the Hilton Hotel, provides a temporary boarding location for local hotel shuttles and regional public transport buses.[76] The O'Hare Multi-Modal Facility is the home of all on-airport car rental firms as well as some extended parking.[76] In addition, the Chicago-area commuter rail system,Metra, has atransfer station of itsNorth Central Service (NCS) located at the northeast corner of the MMF; however, the NCS currently operates an occasional schedule on weekdays only.[77]
TheCTABlue Line's north terminus is atO'Hare and provides direct service to downtown via theMilwaukee–Dearborn subway inthe Loop and continuing to west suburbanForest Park. Trains depart at intervals ranging from every four to thirty minutes, 24 hours a day.[78] The station is located on the lower level of the parking garage, and can be accessed directly from Terminals1–3 via tunnel and from Terminal5 via shuttle bus.
American Airlines offers "tarmac-to-tarmac" bus service between O'Hare and several airports within close proximity, which are considered too close for flights to be economically feasible. This is designed to facilitate connections through O'Hare, a majorinternational hub for American Airlines. Passengers check their bags and clear security at their respective airport, and board amotorcoach that takes them directly to a gate past security at O'Hare. The service is operated by the Landline Company, and is booked through the regular American Airlines reservation system.
O'Hare is directly served byInterstate 190, which offers interchanges with Mannheim Road (U.S. 12 and45), the Tri-State Tollway (Interstate 294), andInterstate 90. I-90 continues as the Kennedy Expressway into downtown Chicago and becomes the Jane Addams Memorial Tollway northwest to Rockford and the Wisconsin state line.
There are presently two main cargo areas at O'Hare. The South Cargo Area was relocated in the 1980s from the airport's first air cargo facilities, located east of the terminal core, where Terminal5 now stands. Many of the structures in this new cargo area then had to be rebuilt, again, to allow for the OMP and specifically runway 10R/28L; as a result, what is now called the South Cargo Area is located between 10R/28L and 10C/28C. This large collection of facilities, in three sections (Southwest, South Central, and Southeast), was established mainly by traditional airline-based air cargo;Air France Cargo, American,JAL Cargo,KLM,Lufthansa Cargo, Northwest and United all built purpose-built, freestanding cargo facilities,[81] although some of these are now leased out to dedicated cargo firms. In addition, the area contains two separate facilities for shipperFedEx and one forUPS.[81]
The Northeast Cargo Area (NEC) is a conversion of the former military base (the Douglas plant area) at the northeast corner of the airport property. It is a new facility designed to increase O'Hare's cargo capacity by 50%. Two buildings currently make up the NEC: a 540,000 square feet (50,000 m2) building completed in 2016,[82] and a 240,000 square feet (22,000 m2) building that was completed in 2017.[83] A third structure will complete the NEC with another 150,000 square feet (14,000 m2) of warehouse space.[84]
The current capability of the cargo areas provide 2 million square feet (190,000 m2) of airside cargo space with parking for 40 wide-body freighters matched with over 2 million square feet (190,000 m2) of landside warehousing capability. O'Hare shipped over 1,700,000 tonnes (1,900,000 short tons) in 2018,fifth among airports in the U.S.[85]
In 2011, O'Hare became the first major airport to build anapiary on its property; every summer, it hosts as many as 75 hives and a million bees. The bees are maintained by 30 to 40 ex-offenders with little to no work experience and few marketable skills; they are primarily recruited from Chicago'sNorth Lawndale neighborhood. They are taught beekeeping but also benefit from the bees' labor, turning it into bottled fresh honey, soaps, lip balms, candles and moisturizers marketed under thebeelove product line.[86][87] More than 500 persons have completed the program, transferring to jobs in manufacturing, food processing, customer service, and hospitality; the repeat-offender rate is reported to be less than 10%.[88]
The CDA's Airport Airfield Operations section is based out of the 150 ft (50 m) tall prototype tower architect I.M. Pei designed for the FAA in the 1960s-1970s.
Resthaven Cemetery, which predates the airport, is situated across from the FedEx facility. Over 300 people are interred at Resthaven, which was allowed to remain on the airport grounds post-OMP while another cemetery, St. Johannes, had to be relocated.[89]
On October 28, 2016,American Airlines Flight 383 aborted takeoff on runway 28R after a fire broke out in the right engine of theBoeing 767-300ER; 20 passengers and one flight attendant were injured.[286]
On June 13, 2022, aparticularly intense supercell coincided with the landing of American Airlines Flight 151 fromParis Charles de Gaulle, which caused extreme turbulence where groundASOS reported a record-tying wind gust of 84 mph (135 km/h). One passenger was physically removed from their seat as a result, suffering severe injuries. The passenger was not wearing a seatbelt at the time of the incident. A lawsuit against the airline was filed in 2024.[287]
On May 18, 2025, aDoorDash driver attempting to make a delivery in a redHyundai Elantra made it past a gated security checkpoint and onto the secure roadways at O’Hare, driving a significant distance until stopping on the ramp next to a United jet parked at the gate. Although approached by baggage handlers, security did not respond for another 10 minutes. No guard was present at the checkpoint, according to the driver, who was following the GPS coordinates to his destination, and the guard who was responsible did not immediately report the matter. However, the driver was not cited, and the Chicago Department of Aviation ended its relationship with the security contractor, which also no longer employs the guard.[288]
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