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Speech

Chicago Press Conference

It’s a great day when a plan comes together, and I’m here today to say that the City of Chicago has outdone itself when it comes to boosting capacity. As a direct result of the City’s efforts to add capacity to O’Hare, the Federal Aviation Administration will allow the caps put in place in 2004 to expire on October 31.

Mayor Daley, the Secretary and I commend you and your staff for getting it done. The extension of Runway 10 is scheduled for completion on September 25^th. That’s two months ahead of schedule. The new runway, 9L/27R, and the new north control tower are set for commissioning on November 20 — right on schedule. The new runway will give you four to five additional arrivals per hour — about 56-70 operations per day. Actual winter schedule requests are for 43 additional arrivals, or about three per hour.

I can’t say enough about how this is an example for the rest of the nation when it comes to dealing with capacity, congestion and delays. Chicago pushed ahead full steam with the O’Hare Modernization Program, and that investment has really paid off. Without that hard work, and the runways you’re building, today very well could have been a different kind of announcement altogether.

Let me make it clear that the FAA does not want to be in the scheduling business. We put those caps in place as a last resort. Getting rid of them is exactly what we’d hoped for, and the people who fly to and through the great city of Chicago are the beneficiaries.

I’d also like to announce that we are designating O’Hare as an IATA level 2 airport — the international standard that requires air carriers to continue to provide schedules six months in advance. This will allow us to monitor potential congestion and take steps as need be. Again, the step we’re hoping for is no step at all. But we are mindful of the airlines’ concerns — that we will need to ensure better performance and predictability to O’Hare. So we will actively monitor the situation moving forward. Lifting the caps will make it easier for airlines to adjust their schedules to respond to the market, which is something they have asked us to do.

In addition to the work with runways, we’ve also improved airspace efficiency. We’ve expanded from three south outbound tracks to now a total of five, giving our controllers and the airlines more flexibility. Since then, we’ve seen on-time departures improve 10 percent. That amounts to a lot of time saved and a lot less fuel burned. I think that’s good news all the way around.

I do want to thank our controllers, technicians, engineers and planners for their hard work. It’s no small thing to keep the airport running during a large construction project. 

Nationally, we’ve made infrastructure projects a priority. In the last nine years, we’ve helped build 13 new runways, from Phoenix and Philadelphia to Atlanta and Logan. That’s a total of 20 miles of concrete and a bump of 1.6 million operations. Another six runways and extensions will be completed by 2010, three of them this November. All told, it’s an investment of $7.8 billion, including a federal contribution of $2.6 billion. But we can’t stop here. Key areas of our country need additional runway capacity. These areas include New York, Las Vegas, Southern California, San Francisco and Chicago.

So, it’s imperative that Chicago continue full steam ahead with its modernization program. I can’t underscore that enough. The modernization program is the answer to growing capacity and heading delays and congestion off at the pass. Our nation needs to continue to build its aviation infrastructure. This is a joint responsibility of federal, state and local officials. The Mayor and his team are setting an example. I congratulate the Mayor, Senator Durbin, Chairman Costello and the entire Chicago delegation for their efforts.

Airport expansions are hard to accomplish and this has been a tough political fight. This makes completion of the entire plan even more critical. Mayor, stay the course. Even greater days are ahead for O’Hare.