Chicago mayor Richard Daley and Illinois state governor George Ryan have agreed to expand O'Hare airport and build a new airport in the south Chicago suburbs. Under the scheme, O'Hare's seven runways will be reconfigured and an eighth runway added in 2011 at a total cost of more than $6 billion. Chicago's third airport will be built in Peotone, Illinois, 65km (39 miles) southwest of the central business district. US senator Dick Durbin of Illinois is to attempt to make the plan federal law by attaching it to the US defence appropriations bill now working its way through Congress.
Source: Flight International