Why Does Chicago O'Hare Airport Have 8 Runways

Chicago O'hare Airport is the only airport in the world to have 8 runways. it's not the busiest airport in the world yet it has the 3 more runways than the busiest Atlanta.
other airports like Dubai and London Heathrow which have somewhat similar passenger numbers have just 2 runways. so in this video, we'll see why Chicago airprot is the only one with 8 runways.

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[kleeblattchen]

well saying Heathrow and Dubai are fine with 2 runways is maybe a bit of an understatement… Heathrow for example operates at something like 98/99% capacity, that’s insane… they‘re looking for ways to enable more resilient operations (heathrow with debating about expansion for years and Dubai building an entire new airport)

[jjwwqq]

1) They needed them.
2) They built them.

[tomschultz]

This also doesn't take into account the cargo traffic, which is heavier at O'Hare than most other airports that have the same amount of passenger traffic. The other airports focused on in this piece don't have nearly the cargo traffic.

[physics]

This was a very roundabout way to explain two simple things: (1) ORD has bad weather / unpredictable winds (2) more small planes fly thru ORD so need more runways

[nelauren]

Atlanta is number one in passengers. Chicago is number one in flights. Somehow people mix these things up.

[Cancun]

I can still remember flying into O'Hare in December '08 and the plane actually landed some 20 minutes early. But then we *taxied around the airport for over 45 minutes* until finally reaching the gate! It was insane.

[eddiem]

Extreme weather issues are “rare” have you been to Chicago during winter. There day to day winter weather is extreme to everyone else.

[vanguard]

Surprised it was t mentioned that O’hare was the busiest airport in the world for many years as a part of the need for its numerous runways.

[jckyu]

I’ve flown on airplanes as big as the 777s and as small as twin engine piston propellers into ohare. 13000km nonstop from Hong Kong and 200 km from Michigan. Really shows how diverse the traffic at ORD is.

[stephenbritton]

Many times flying into Ohare on a regional (CRJ/ERJ/etc) you come in on the northern most runway and then taxi for almost as long as your flight is!

[michaelangell]

Hasn’t O’Hare also increased its cargo capacity in the last several years? This would account for some of the aircraft movements.

[manifestgtr]

It’s funny how Ohare and Dubai are such mental airports for such similar reasons. Ohare is centrally located in North America so it sees a TON of smaller traffic. Dubai is centrally located between Europe and Asia so it pumps in huge numbers of international passengers.

[Trainmaster]

You also have a lot of dedicated cargo traffic at Chicago due to the heavy railroad presence and central location of the city, which further adds to the planes in and out of ORD.

[codnewbgamer]

One nice part is the selection of different runways allows for quieter days for affected neighborhoods

[TheMaartian]

I've flown in and out of O'Hare hundreds of times. Except for my flight to France when I moved here 2 1/2 years ago, those flights occurred 20+ years ago. I've even flown into O'Hare in the right seat of a personal twin turboprop. What I noticed from this video is that runway 34/16 is GONE. That was a surprise. I flew in and out on it regularly.

[kevindigo]

KORD has changed so much over the last 20 years or didn't even realize both the old 14-32's were now completely gone. The fact KORD is a hub for both American and United, and the proliferation of all the RJ traffic, made things much worse from a traffic congestion perspective for the old 6 intersecting runway configuration. One of the interesting things about flying into and out of the old KORD configuration was the traffic patterns of arrivals and departures when using the non-parallel runways simultaneously. I distinctly remember being on an arriving flight on approach, and looking out the window seeing a departing flight pass right behind us at what I thought was way too close. I am sure the old configuration must have kept ATC and the pilots on their toes, relying on their TCAS, especially in low visibility conditions. I would think if KLAX can manage with 4 parallels, and KATL with 5 parallels, KORD should be able to manage with the same. If you want to talk about runway limitations, you should do a video on San Diego (KSAN) that operates with a single runway, which is unusual for an airport in a city of that size.

[TheEmaile]

Very interesting! I left Chicago right when they got approval to expand the airport. Never had a clue that this was how the runways there worked. Also didn’t know that Mitsubishi made CRJs.

[flyerman]

O'hare is also in the middle of an $8.5 billion terminal upgrade under the ORD21 project which is adding 2 new satellite terminals and rebuilding terminal 2 into a "global terminal". So it's adding 25% more gate space while allowing for additional satellite terminals to be built to the west if need be in the future.

[Josiah_X_NG]

"Mitsubishi CRJ" doesn't exist.... The correct is "Canada Regional Jet CRJ"

[timjouwstra]

Chicago's other major airport, Chicago Midway, has four runways. That's 12 runways within 15 miles of downtown and within 15 miles of each other.