Check one, two, check.
All right.
Good morning.
Marnie Pike with the Daily Herald.
Do you know how you're going to apportion the gates at the new concourse?
Thank you for that question, Commissioner.
Thank you.
Yes, go ahead.
I'm sorry.
Hi, Marnie Pike with the Daily Herald.
You know, United and American are eager to get gates.
Do you know how you're going to divvy up the 19 new gates at the concourse?
No, we have an idea, but we're still working on that,
and we'll be releasing a little bit more information on that a little bit later this fall.
Okay, and a quick follow-up.
In a couple years, the Illinois Tollway is going to finish a road to the western entrance of O'Hare.
You know, is the public, when will the public be able to access that entrance?
Right now it's called for like a parking lot for airport employees.
So that's a great question, but it's one for the Illinois Tollway Authority.
But I will say we have a great partnership with them.
We're working in tandem.
We've been having meetings, and we plan to continue to meet.
But that's more of a question for the Illinois Tollway Authority.
Is there a construction timetable or at least estimations that the public can be aware of?
And what kind of disruptions or even minimal could passengers expect, travelers expect?
Sure. So for today, for the new Concourse D, the completion date is 2028.
And, you know, a lot of pre-planning and preparation went into this day.
And so, you know, there will be very, very minimal disruption to operations.
So, again, it was really because of the planning and prep that went in.
And it's all about, on any major construction project, it's about the phasing and staging.
So that was taken care of in the planning process stage.
Rob Hughes with ABC7.
Can you tell us what we see right now and where we're at, how long has this been going on?
And obviously we see a lot of construction coming, some dirt moved.
Yeah.
So this project has, you know, it has its inception in about 25 years ago, actually, right,
with the start of the O'Hare modernization program where we expanded our runways and expanded our airfield.
And so because of that planning and foresight that went into that project,
We're standing here today ready to build our new Concourse D, our new Concourse E,
and the global terminal, which will go where Terminal 2 currently stands.
So a lot of time in prep.
So this wasn't just, you know, seven years ago.
Airport planning takes time, right?
It's not just for the next year.
It's for the next generation.
And if you're not planning and looking ahead, then you're falling behind the curb.
So this has been in the process for quite some time.
And, of course, under Mayor Johnson really gave it new life and new enthusiasm, brought our airline partners together so that we could really move it forward.
And then just one follow-up for either you or the mayor.
Can you kind of contextualize what this means for the people of Chicago, those who may not come here for business or pleasure?
Yeah, thank you for that.
As the design team, our engineers, I want to give a special thanks to Scott, who's standing alongside of me as well.
A lot of innovation has gone into the expansion of the airport, but what this means is we're talking about thousands of construction jobs, billions of dollars of investment.
The O'Hare Airport, City of Chicago, we have broken multiple records this summer as we
have seen an increase in passengers coming through our airport and both of our airports,
but particularly O'Hare.
It is truly a sign that our economy is continuing to grow under my administration, but it's
also about the future of our city. As the global center of the world, the city of Chicago,
we are reclaiming our status as the busiest airport in the world. But just as importantly,
this is about how the neighborhoods locally will be impacted. So it's a gateway to the world and
it's an opportunity for the world to access our city as ridership amongst our public
transportation continues to go up, as our hotel occupancy continues to rise, as we build
more affordable homes, and as, of course, we drive violence down in the city of Chicago,
this is just yet another example of how our investments are building the safest, most
affordable big city in America.
Thank you all very much.