For some reason I'm being the doc of this post, haha oh well..

Senate panel wants deal on Chicago airport delays


CHICAGO (Reuters) - A panel of U.S. senators on Friday gave Chicago and Illinois officials until September 1 to reach a consensus on addressing congestion problems at O'Hare International Airport or face possible federal intervention.

Delays at the nation's busiest airport and their impact on air travel across the country were the focus of a hearing in Chicago by the Senate Commerce Committee.

U.S. Senator John McCain, an Arizona Republican, who chaired the hearing, warned that a failure to deal with gridlock at the airport could force the federal government to get involved.

"The only thing that is not an option is inaction on the part of state and local officials," he said, pointing out he was not advocating any one possible solution. Suggested remedies include adding runways at O'Hare, building a third airport in the Chicago region and expanding outlying airports.

Thomas Walker, Chicago's aviation commissioner, and Linda Wheeler, a director at the Illinois Department of Transportation, told the senators they believed a consensus could be reached by September 1, a date set by two U.S. Senate Democrats, Richard Durbin of Illinois and John D. Rockefeller of West Virginia, who attended the hearing.

Chicago aviation officials were readying conceptional runway plans to present to Illinois Governor George Ryan by July 1, Walker said. While McCain said the cost adding runways was a "very major aspect," Walker said no estimates would be available until the plan was completed.

Meanwhile, Wheeler said Illinois was pressing ahead to use $75 million of appropriated state funds to start buying land for a $600 million so-called starter airport to be built in Peotone, Illinois, a town about 35 miles south of Chicago.

Ryan and his fellow Republican predecessors in the governor's office have opposed new runways at O'Hare, while Chicago Mayor Richard Daley and the heads of major airlines have rejected the idea of building an airport in Peotone. Various testimony at the hearing blamed politics and airlines' quest to maintain high fares at O'Hare as among the reasons for the impasse.

Durbin said after the hearing that federal pressure, including a bill to strip the Illinois governor of his veto power over runways, would lessen if the state and city reach agreement by September 1.