Daley Speaks Out

It's not a good thing to destroy an airport when you need more runway capacity. That's the word from a consultant to Chicago Mayor Richard Daley, after telling Hizzoner, even with an expanded O'Hare International, Chicago simply needs more runways and gate space.

It began last week with a late Sunday night raid ordered by Mayor Richard Daley on Meigs Field, the city's lakefront general aviation airport.

Then, a consultant's report said the proposed expansion of O'Hare would not be enough to solve the problem of overcapacity and delays. Also, Sen. Peter Fitzgerald (R-IL), once opposed to giving Chicago a say in a proposed third airport suggested the city instead should run it; and Daley announced that he had not been elected to be a lover boy.

Arrogance? Not Daley..."They didn't elect me to be a lover boy"

Daley, bristling at suggestions that bulldozing the runway at Meigs without warning showed arrogance, explained Thursday why nearly 80 percent of voters picked him in the latest mayoral election.

"Sometimes you have to make decisions. You make decisions, decisions being made. People want you to make decisions. They didn't elect me to be a lover boy," said the mayor.

Explaining why he forced Meigs Field to be closed, Daley blamed the threat of terrorist attack by a small plane. But he has said previously he wanted to turn the space into a park.

This Guy Might Run Peotone?

Daley also offered a geography lesson in response to Fitzgerald's suggestion that Chicago could control the proposed Peotone airport, which would be built nearly 40 miles south of Chicago.

"First of all, I don't want any ownership of Peotone. I hope that Sen. Fitzgerald understands, and those who are supporting Peotone, that that resides in Will County," Daley explained. "It's a county just south of Chicago and south of Cook County."

Fitzgerald said he thought the idea made sense, despite the geography. "I think that there's some internal logic in having the city's three airports operated by the same operator because you could manage them in a way that they don't undercut each other," he said.

The dispute over Peotone and O'Hare expansion has simmered for years, and created unlikely political alliances as Democrats lined up with Republicans on both sides of the plan. Aaron Gellman, a professor at Northwestern University's Transportation Center in the Kellogg Graduate School of Management, said Fitzgerald's offer to Daley indicates how big a role politics plays in the process. "Peotone should not be the fiefdom of the mayor," he said.

Make 'Em National Airports

"The 40 or 50 largest airports should be declared the collective assets of the nation and taken out of the control of local officials," Gellman said. But that seems unlikely, and because O'Hare is a key part of the major airlines' hub-and-spoke system, when air traffic is delayed in Chicago it ripples throughout the country. Studies project the problem only getting worse.

Under a deal worked out between Daley and former Gov. George Ryan in December 2001, a $6 billion expansion of O'Hare was tied to the construction of a more modest airport near Peotone, as well as to an agreement to keep Meigs Field open for up to 25 years.

But Fitzgerald's opposition kept O'Hare expansion from making it into federal law. Then Ryan left office and Daley tore up Meigs Field's runway, prompting an after-the-fact lawsuit Friday by the Friends of Meigs Field, a group which wants to see the airport reopened.

Expanding O'Hare: Not Enough

Meanwhile, a consultant paid by Chicago to study the O'Hare plan, Ricondo & Associates, reported that O'Hare expansion would not be enough to keep pace with the projected growth in traffic at there.

And the crunch may get even worse in the near future.

The FAA issued new rules last week that preclude 41 airlines from participating in a complicated runway procedure designed to allow more flights at O'Hare. During busy periods, hourly capacity could be reduced by up to 30 planes.

O'Hare handles about 920,000 flights a year. Daley said in 2001 that his plan would enable the airport to handle 1.6 million flights and would cut delays by 95 percent in bad weather and 79 percent overall. But a simulation by the consultant found that delays at O'Hare would increase even at 1.3 million flights a year.

"I don't think the study was as negative toward O'Hare as has been suggested," said Joseph Schwieterman, an economics professor at DePaul University who follows the airline industry. "I think the study shows there's room for both the O'Hare and Peotone projects," he said.

While Gov. Rod Blagojevich urged that O'Hare be a priority, he shared that view: "I do see that both O'Hare expansion and Peotone can co-exist." Many aviation experts see the need for both. "Looking out 25 years, the need for new runway space is staggering," Schwieterman said.

FMI: www.ohare.com