Controversy blows into Windy City with planned Virgin America service to O’Hare
This morning, Virgin America announced that Chicago O’Hare will be its newest destination. Starting this November, the airline hopes to begin four daily round-trip flights to both San Francisco and Los Angeles.
The Chicago Tribune reports that “Virgin America aims to begin its Chicago operations in November, when O’Hare is slated to open a new runway designed to allow the airport to handle more flights during foul weather. That should enable O’Hare to handle more than 88 landings per hour, which is the limit set by regulators.”
It also appears, according to the Tribune, that Virgin will be “flying into a controversy” over landing rights at the crowded airport and they plan to petition the FAA for eight daily landing slots — slots that both United and American are saying they should be given because they had to cut flights from the airport at the request of the FAA back in 2004, which clearly, they were not terribly thrilled about. United and American contend that they should be given precedence for landing rights but the FAA has decided instead to award such rights to new entrants like Virgin.
David Cush, who was with American Airlines for 22 years before joining Virgin last year as president and CEO, said that he thinks Virgin will hold its own because of its offering: all-new aircraft that include a first-class section, electrical and Ethernet plugs at every seat, and an entertainment system that lets passengers order food and drinks by touching TV screens.
It remains to be seen how the new runway will alleviate the delays and congestion O’Hare is so well known for. If the extra runway at O’Hare doesn’t work, the new South Suburban airport in Chicago (its third) might do the trick — whenever that finally comes to be. It has only been under development for the last 40 years now.
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