Imagine a new Chicago airport. It could have a shopping arcade with a big used-book store and a little museum, maybe describing the history of aviation. How about a full-service bank and work spaces for executives on the go. Maybe a barbershop and shoe-shine parlor.
Of course, that would place this new airport considerably farther from downtown than O’Hare or Midway is. It might take two hours to drive from the Loop, an hour and a half from the north side, or an hour from Lake Forest. Business travelers on expense accounts would probably continue to use O’Hare or Midway. But these people represent only about half of O’Hare’s business, and much less than that of Midway’s.
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Such dire predictions are disputed by the Illinois Department of Transportation, which is working hard to convince the General Assembly and the federal government that there is a need for a third major Chicago-area airport. Suhail al Chalabi, a consultant to IDOT who did the airport demand forecasting for the state, says that traffic at O’Hare increased heavily last year, nearly to the airport’s capacity. He attributes the gain to an increased number of transfers at the nation’s busiest hub, not an overall increase in air traffic. According to Chicago aviation commissioner David Mosena, O’Hare is not anywhere near capacity. But he also says plans are under way for a new runway to increase capacity. Obviously, he’s anticipating more growth than O’Hare can now comfortably handle.
Which is to say (1) we need another airport to supplement O’Hare and Midway and (2) we shouldn’t build one. So what’s the answer? Simple. That imaginary airport already exists. In Milwaukee.
Milwaukee’s airport opened in 1927, the same year Charles Lindbergh crossed the Atlantic. It had one airline, two cinder runways, and a few flights–mostly mail runs–each day. Passengers who flew those early airlines sat on the mailbags. The pilot rode in an open cockpit and watched the ground to see where he was going; planes didn’t have radios.
Chicago’s first airport, Midway, originally called Chicago Municipal Airport, opened in 1925 but was also eclipsed by O’Hare. In 1932, Munie, as it was called, was the busiest airport in the country, serving all the major airlines. But the advent of jet planes, which required longer runways than Midway had, meant that gradually all the airlines moved to O’Hare. Midway had a small resurgence in 1968 after a $10 million renovation, but after cutbacks during the recession and the oil crisis of the 70s it became almost a ghost town. It had another resurgence in the early 80s with the growth of Midway Airlines and other small low-cost airlines. Jay Franke, consultant to the Transportation Center at Northwestern University and former aviation commissioner for Chicago, says that Midway’s future lies with “vacationers going to the major vacation spots and businesspeople going to the secondary markets who don’t want to pay O’Hare prices.” Either way, they still have to put up with Midway’s general grunginess.
The report also pointed out that in order for a new airport to avoid interfering with O’Hare’s operation, it would have to be situated at least 62.3 miles south of O’Hare, 75 miles north, 95 miles west, or 140 miles east. “The real impact of the FAA report–if there is to be a third airport–is to make a stronger case for expanding Milwaukee’s airport, which is already there and already in the national airspace grid,” read a 1987 editorial in the Chicago Tribune. “[This] will [not] please those state and local officials and Republican legislators who have fed the third-airport idea. It’s been a convenient issue to mollify voters agitated by O’Hare, just as it’s been convenient for them to ignore the fact that O’Hare is not going away–third airport or not. The difference now is that it’s harder to argue for a new airport, and harder to ignore reality.” But Daley and Edgar were still arguing for a new airport.
