At first glance Chicago seems much like a handful of other large metropolitan cities–a pair of airline hubs surrounded by a smattering of general aviation reliever fields. But in Chicago’s case, the center of the airspace is O’Hare International Airport, the world’s busiest (909,530 operations last year). Chicago’s second hub, Midway, relinquished that same title to O’Hare in the 1960s. Ask any O’Hare air traffic controller, though, and they’ll tell you O’Hare is the center of the universe. Indeed, most pilots rate Chicago Tracon and O’Hare Tower controllers as the best.
Like Chicago, a city of neighborhoods, the principal reliever airports–Palwaukee, Waukegan, Meigs, DuPage, Aurora and Gary, Ind.–possess a culture and a following all their own, sometimes tied to the airport, sometimes to the operators there.
O’Hare’s (ORD) single FBO– Signature Flight Support–handles 15,000 general aviation operations annually, most for connecting airline passengers. Despite being a speck on the airport operationally, the FBO will soon break ground for a new facility with a ramp in front of the FBO–a nice change for crews who are now bussed in from their aircraft. Despite talk of a less than friendly atmosphere toward GA, Signature ORD general manager Paul Shira said, “The City of Chicago realizes the necessity of business aviation and works well with us.”
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