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American Morning
Are Friendly Skies Running Smoother?
Aired July 27, 2001 - 11:20 ET
THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.
THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.
DARYN KAGAN, CNN ANCHOR: Your travel experience might be different, but the FAA would have you believe that the skies are running smoother nowadays, the FAA saying that flight delays are down 5 percent during the first half of the year. Three factors, they say, are at work here. Airlines made some schedule changes. They rerouted some flights and the weather has cooperated.
Still, Chicago, just say Chicago, and that's nightmares for travelers, Chicago is moving ahead with plans to expand O'Hare Airport. It was once the nation's busiest. Now it is lovingly labeled the busiest bottleneck. Any time you make an airport bigger, there are people who live nearby who aren't going to be too happy. And that's where we find our Jeff Flock, in Bensenville. That is a suburb of Chicago -- Jeff, good morning once again.
JEFF FLOCK, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Well, actually, Daryn, we fooled you. We moved from Bensenville on up to the airport proper because, as you know, we spent the morning with the folks living near the airport who are generally opposed to expansion. But perhaps you see over here outside the airport the people who generally support it, that is, the traveling public that has been inconvenienced by the delays and the bottlenecks at O'Hare.
Clearly, when it comes to expanding what has ultimately been the world's busiest or second busiest airport, there are two sides to the story.
(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)
UNIDENTIFIED SPEAKER: It's hard sometimes, especially when you're on the phone or if we're talking outside like this.
FLOCK (voice-over): It can be as hard to live near O'Hare Airport as it is to travel through it.
UNIDENTIFIED SPEAKER: One time I was stuck here for 13 1/2 hours.
FLOCK: But to make it better for some, it may get worse for others.
UNIDENTIFIED SPEAKER: Today we announced a proposal to enhance Chicago's role... FLOCK: Chicago wants to spend $6 billion to expand the world's second busiest airport, bulldozing 543 homes in this neighborhood in the process, including Bill Muzyka's.
BILL MUZYKA: They may get it sooner or later, but I mean I'm not going to go down without a fight.
FLOCK: Until now, the fight has been over whether to expand O'Hare or to put a new Chicago airport in this south suburban cornfield. Either way, somebody's bound to sue.
UNIDENTIFIED SPEAKER: People file lawsuits every day. That's what lawyers are for. That's how, that's, they're supposed to do that. We understand that.
FLOCK: Last year, O'Hare was second only to La Guardia in delays, 57,000 flights.
(on camera): O'Hare is a hub for the world's two biggest airlines. It's said that when O'Hare sneezes, the nation's air traffic system gets a cold. According to the FAA, even a single canceled flight here in the morning can affect more than 70 cities and 300 aircraft by day's end.
SEN. JOHN MCCAIN (R), ARIZONA: Something must be done soon.
FLOCK (voice-over): Arizona Senator John McCain held hearings on the growing O'Hare delays, threatening federal intervention if something doesn't get built.
MCCAIN: The only thing that is not an option is inaction on the part of state and local officials.
FLOCK: Back in the O'Hare neighborhood, there is a bright side.
UNIDENTIFIED SPEAKER: Every two minutes a plane's landing. I mean you guys see that. There will be another one here in like two minutes.
FLOCK: Though he lives close, Dan Spence's house won't be torn down and changing around the runways takes his house out of the flight path. One's loss, another's gain.
(END VIDEOTAPE)
FLOCK: Daryn, as you report, the weather has been good the first six months of this year. But they're concerned about when it gets bad. That's what they want to do is reconfigure the runways out here so they operate more efficiently in bad weather by making them parallel runways as opposed to the crossing runways. Of course, the problem is they've got to bulldoze a lot of homes to do that.
That's the latest from O'Hare. Back to you.
KAGAN: No easy answers.
FLOCK: You said it.
KAGAN: Jeff Flock at O'Hare International Airport, thank you so much.
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