passenger airport facilities in the chicago region

[applesauce]

So, as I often do, I was thinking about transportation, and I decided to make some maps and charts about passenger airport facilities in the Chicago-Milwaukee area. Not sure how many of you are aware, but both O'hare and Midway are over capacity will not be able to accommodate future growth. Nearby airports in Gary, Milwaukee, and Rockford have already started to pick up some of Chicago's air traffic, due to congestion at O'hare and Midway. There are various proposals around to either build a brand-new airport, or build huge expansions at Gary/Chicago International, to make it into Chicago's third major airport. I made this ofr myself, but you guys seemed to enjoy the ones I made on Great Lakes shipping volumes, so here you go. Behold, maps and charts:

Throughout the maps, blue lines are current runways, red lines are under construction runways, and orange lines are funded but not yet under construction runways.

First, and overview of all 5 airports and the region:




Next, we look at each one individually.


Starting with O'hare, the largest. O'hare currently has 7 runways, which will go up to 10 when the current expansion is complete. It handles the largest portion of Chicago's air traffic, with 274,344 flights out of 182 gates carrying 66,665,390 passengers. O'hare is only 18 miles from the Loop, and is reached in 62 minutes via the CTA's Blue Line, 24/7. After the current expansion is complete, expanding O'hare will no longer be an option.




Next, Midway. Midway has 5 runways and 42 gates serving up 253,901 flights with 17,340,497 passengers. It's only 12 miles from the Loop and accessible in 29 minutes via the Orange Line, which runs close to 24/7, but not quite. It is already impossible to expand Midway in any way.



Those are Chicago's two primary airports. Next are the three airports that traffic is currently spilling over to due to congestion at O'hare and Midway. This will only increase.

Milwaukee is obviously the primary airport for the Milwaukee area, but has been increasingly serving Chicago traffic. It has 5 runways and 46 gates serving up 187,554 flights with 9,848,377 passengers. It's 86 miles from the Loop, a 140 minute trip via Amtrak's Hiawatha service, which runs about a dozen times daily. It would be nice to minimize the overflow to Milwaukee because of the distance, and to just let Milwaukee use Milwaukee.




Next up is the Rockford airport. Its 2 runways and 3 gates serve 215,000 passengers on 77,558 flights. It's located 85 miles from the loop and is not accessible by transit. Far away, in the middle of nowhere, not really a viable option.



Finally, the Gary/Chicago airport. Its 2 runways and 2 gates serve 0 passengers on 36,414 flights (the passenger numbers do not include corporate, charter, or private, whereas the flight numbers include all of that, plus freight and military). It's 28 miles from the Loop, accessible in 91 minutes via the South Shore Line during the day. Currently an extension to the main runway is under construction, along with a new terminal and train station. The currently under construction high speed rail line from Chicago to  Detroit will stop here, dramatically shortening travel times to the Loop. This is my pick to be expanded into Chicago's third major airport.





Now, charts!

Number of runways (including currently funded expansions):



Number of passenger gates:



Percentage of region's passenger traffic served:



Number of flights:



Distance from the Loop in miles:



Travel time from Loop via transit:







I hope you guys enjoyed reading. I know I enjoyed making.

[applesauce]

I guess no one enjoyed this. 

[silvertone]

I started it, but it made me miss the UK. ;-;

[wawi]

I really enjoy these, the Great Lakes one and now this.

[?????]

Is this something you turned in at school?

What is the loop?

[applesauce]

Is this something you turned in at school?

What is the loop?

No, I just wanted to learn about it and I couldn't find any information on it compiled in a useful way, so I did it myself.

The Loop is one of two things, either the literal loop formed by the L tracks downtown, or the neighborhood the Loop, which includes the area encircled by the L's loop, and a couple blocks in each direction. It's the financial/corporate center of downtown.

[?????]

Why wasn't this stickied?

[YPrrrr]

I enjoyed learning that flying from Milwaukee > flying from Chicago. I take the right way home