One of Chicago's Strengths -- ease of travel to other places

[DougStark]

Originally Posted by emathias

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.

Well done, emathias. I will accept your claims re: O'hare as accurate. However, air traffic congestion at O'hare is well known and unfortunately the airport cannot expand like DIA can. I avoid it at any cost the few times I fly into Chicago.

Mentioning Midway's "5" runways was kind of funny to me--we all know how limited that airport is for runway length and capacity. haha.

Bottom line: yes, O'hare is an awesome international airport, but I wouldn't use it as a basis of where I want to live in the US.

[pvande55]

That OHare is a major hub for United and American, and that Midway is Southwest's busiest terminal makes Chicago a great place to fly from. Add to that Mitchell and the handful of flights from Rockford. Also, in a country starved for train service, the city does better than most. The South Shore connects to two other metros, higher speed service is coming to the Lincoln service, and the trains to Detroit are also speeding up.

[DougStark]

^^^ the country isn't "starved" for train service. Nobody wants to take them, except the NE corridor.

[wase4711]

Originally Posted by DougStark

^^^ the country isn't "starved" for train service. Nobody wants to take them, except the NE corridor.

unfortunately, this is true..Trains are a great way to travel, but, unless the US implements high speed train service nationwide, trains dont have a very bright future in the USA..

[paytonc]

I took full advantage of that as a Chicago resident. Yet air travel is unreliable enough that I have a lot of dim memories of ruined weekend trips.

I prefer my weekend trip options on the east coast -- sure, I can fly somewhere, but there's so much within 200 miles that can be reached by train, bus, or car as well. I can take a Saturday day trip to NYC, arriving for brunch and closing out with a show, and not have to pack anything at all, or show up at the train station more than a few minutes in advance.

[emathias]

Originally Posted by DougStark

Well done, emathias. I will accept your claims re: O'hare as accurate. However, air traffic congestion at O'hare is well known and unfortunately the airport cannot expand like DIA can. I avoid it at any cost the few times I fly into Chicago.

Mentioning Midway's "5" runways was kind of funny to me--we all know how limited that airport is for runway length and capacity. haha.

Bottom line: yes, O'hare is an awesome international airport, but I wouldn't use it as a basis of where I want to live in the US.

Hey, you were advocating Denver for it's airport, I was just demonstrating that if an airport was a deciding factor that Denver's, while clean and modern and having room to expand, doesn't really bring as much to the table as Chicago's airports.

[jfre81]

Originally Posted by emathias

Hey, you were advocating Denver for it's airport, I was just demonstrating that if an airport was a deciding factor that Denver's, while clean and modern and having room to expand, doesn't really bring as much to the table as Chicago's airports.

And then there's the gap between what Denver provides overall as a city vs. Chicago.

Not a knock against Denver by any means. Comparing Chicago and Denver is like comparing boxers in two different weight classes. Denver's just a smaller place, although it definitely feels crowded.

Ease of travel to other cities is definitely a plus as I see it, as far as upsides and downsides about moving to Chicago.