O’Hare Officials Propose New Overnight Flight Plans

If approved, new flight patterns could be implemented by May 2016.

Flyers could soon see new flight patterns when flying overnight through Chicago O’Hare International Airport (ORD), if the proposal is approved by both local residents and the Federal Aviation Administration. The Chicago Sun-Times reports the City Aviation Commission will put forward a new plan for overnight flights arriving into and departing from the airport.

The new routing is an answer, in part, to an increased number of noise complaints received by the airport since October 2013. In 2014, a Sun-Times investigation revealed ORD had over 268,000 noise complaints filed against them, over 10 times more than John F. Kennedy International Airport (JFK) in New York.

While the airport commission originally planned for rotating runways, a vote of the ORD Noise Compatibility Commission gave it marginal support earlier this month. Airport commissioner Ginger Evans said she planned to work alongside the Federal Aviation Administration to rebuild the plan before returning to the committee.

Under the new plan, flights operating between 10:45 p.m. and 5:30 a.m. would operate out of rotating runway combinations. The night traffic would be routed through different runway combinations on rotating weeks, focusing on those that route aircraft over lower population areas. Ten combinations have been identified for the trial run, which could be spread over 12 weeks as part of a trial to determine a permanent operating plan for the airport.

The plan will go before the FAA and could be approved at their May meeting. If the plan goes through, the new night routing could go into effect nearly immediately.

[Photo: AP]