One of Chicago's Strengths -- ease of travel to other places (Rockford: closing, to live in)

[DougStark]

Originally Posted by Bluefox

I love DIA, but you’re wrong to characterize Denver as a less expensive alternative to Chicago. Huge housing bubble there right now.

Did I say Denver's home prices are low? NO. I said real estate taxes there are VERY reasonable.

[DougStark]

Originally Posted by Astral_Weeks

Your definition of "new" is strange. DIA has been open for over 20 years.....

As far as airports in the USA go, DIA is "new". DIA is the newest and largest MAJOR airport in the USA.

[OyCrumbler]

Originally Posted by DougStark

As far as airports in the USA go, DIA is "new". DIA is the newest and largest MAJOR airport in the USA.

Okay, your use of new is strange until you use quotation marks. So you’ve got it now, bro!

[GoodHombre]

Originally Posted by Vlajos

But I don't want to live in LA and if one is trying to avoid high taxes California is not a good place to lower your tax bill.

Then, Dallas is a better choice.

Dallas is also a centrally located big city, with nonstop flights to almost all major cities, but it's much warmer.

The tax bill isn't too ridiculous, either.

[Vlajos]

Originally Posted by GoodHombre

Then, Dallas is a better choice.

Dallas is also a centrally located big city, with nonstop flights to almost all major cities, but it's much warmer.

The tax bill isn't too ridiculous, either.

I really don't like Texas at all. Probably one of my least favorite states and Dallas is completely soulless.

[lepoisson]

Besides NYC, Chicago is the best city in the US for flights. We have two airports that provide flights to just about anywhere in the US in under 3hr. If you are going international, you can get to the major cities in Europe, Asia, and South America with multiple airlines.

Cities like Atlanta and Dallas have large airports, but they have airline monopolies that increase costs significantly.

[DougStark]

Originally Posted by lepoisson

Besides NYC, Chicago is the best city in the US for flights. We have two airports that provide flights to just about anywhere in the US in under 3hr. If you are going international, you can get to the major cities in Europe, Asia, and South America with multiple airlines.

Cities like Atlanta and Dallas have large airports, but they have airline monopolies that increase costs significantly.

Your opinion forgets one important fact: O'hare has some of the worst delays in the nation. Combination of poor weather events and an "at capacity" status. Denver's DIA is not "at capacity" and can add many more runways as it grows.

[pete6032]

Is this the Chicago forum or the Denver forum?

[emathias]

Originally Posted by DougStark

You could make your "launching pad" just as easily from Denver, with the HUGE new airport that is expanding all of the time. DiA has flights everywhere.

Plus, in Denver you wouldn't have to deal with Illinois' insane real estate taxes.

O'Hare has nonstop flights to 64 destinations, many of which with multiple flights (there are over 120 international non-stop departures per day). Of those 64, 33 are outside of the Americas. DEN serves 26 international non-stop destinations, only 8 of which are outside of the Americas. I don't know how many international non-stop flights per day, but certainly less than half the number Chicago has. Basically, Chicago has direct flights to every continent. Denver lacks direct flights to South America, Africa, Australia/New Zealand, and has service to only a single city in Asia. Denver serves 6 cities in Europe (including Iceland in Europe), Chicago serves 24 European cities.

And this doesn't include Midway airport, which probably doesn't add many, if any at all, unique locations, but provides price competition and frequency of service for more flexibility when flying places in North America (mostly US destinations, but does also serve Mexico, Canada, and three Caribbean islands).

So, yeah, not so much on using Denver as a comparable hub to Chicago. As for size, ORD has 8 runways. DEN has 6. Sure, DEN has "room for" 12 runways, but we're talking about today. Plus Chicago's Midway has 5 runways, so taken together, Chicago *already* is only one fewer runways away from Denver's limit.

Plus, people in the north suburbs of Chicago have ready access to the Milwaukee airport, which is also accessible via Amtrak from downtown Chicago, and Gary, Indiana, airport occasionally has commercial service off and on. And if we want to get really technical, Chicago also includes Rockford within its airports, even though it's 75 miles to the NW and has very little commercial service. And, not really helpful, but amusingly, you can actually take one of the nation's last interurban trains from downtown Chicago to the airport at South Bend, Indiana, if you so desired. So you can take rail transportation from downtown Chicago to O'Hare, Midway, Milwaukee, and South Bend. And if Gary ever had frequent commercial service, it would probably enhance rail access to it, since the line that goes to South Bend runs just a couple of miles south of the Gary Airport. Does Denver have all that?

Seriously, for international destinations, which is where airports differentiate themselves, in North America, New York leads, and then after that it's a cluster of probably Chicago, Toronto, LA, Houston, San Francisco, Atlanta, then the next cluster of Boston, Seattle, Mexico City, Washington, Montreal, then clustered together, Minneapolis, Denver, Philadelphia, Detroit, Portland, etc. Within each cluster, you could order them somewhat differently depending on how you prioritized continents or frequency of service, etc, but they're comparable in reach.

[MassVt]

Originally Posted by GoodHombre

Then, Dallas is a better choice.

Dallas is also a centrally located big city, with nonstop flights to almost all major cities, but it's much warmer.

The tax bill isn't too ridiculous, either.

The weather in Dallas in the summer is awful. Chicago for the proximity, and the win!