A380 at ORD Question
 

Since according to the Chicago Tribune, the A380 is coming to ORD on the 20th of March, I was wondering if anyone will be let on the plane etc? Anyone with more info?

Moving to Travel Buzz.


Kiwi Flyer
LH moderator

this thread is going to Chicago.
Obscure2k
TravelBuzz Moderator

Bear in mind, Chicago is Boeing headquarters. I understand that they are sending a commando team to let the air out of the tires and paint graffiti on the fuselage.

The A380 will stop at JFK first, on the 19th, so I suggest changing the thread title to include NY and move to Newsstand. :)

Would moving a thread 3 times set a record? :)

While you're at it, why not re-write the OP's question and put in the NY forum? ;)

My gosh, can not the mods get togeather? What is this, some kind of contest?

I can confirm....I am a team member. lol.

An article from Crain's doesn't shed more light, but it seems like the landing's for training rather than publicity purposes:

http://www.chicagobusiness.com/cgi-bin/news.pl?id=24206

did the Tribune article mention an approx landing &/or takeoff time ?

The Crain's article did not.

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details from Trib today:


Unlike Los Angeles, which set up public viewing areas, Chicago officials are warning that police will ticket drivers who attempt to park on roads near O'Hare when the eight-story A380 touches down, scheduled for 12:50 p.m., on a flight from Kennedy.



Nothing to see here

"People should not be pulling over on the roads trying to take a look at the plane. The Police Department will be shagging people away," said Jim Szczesniak, deputy commissioner for operations at the Chicago Department of Aviation.

Perhaps the best chance to see the A380 on Tuesday will be when it crosses the Lake Michigan shoreline somewhere between Evanston and Waukegan, according to air-traffic controllers responsible for guiding the plane to O'Hare. The plane will cross the shoreline at an altitude between 7,000 and 11,000 feet.

Anticipated east winds will result in a landing on one of two runways--9 Right or 4 Right--south of O'Hare's passenger terminals near Mannheim and Irving Park Roads, aviation officials said...


When the A380 begins regular scheduled service in two years, the plane will taxi to gate M13 at the international terminal and passengers will exit via movable bridges on both sides of the aircraft, which has a total of 16 doors. Departures will be handled at Terminal 1, which houses United Airlines and its foreign partners.

Yeah, this is Boeing territory, foreign interlopers aren't welcome.

They're probably trying to make it into a very minor event, so the media ignores it.

(actually, the real threat to Boeing's presence in Illinois isn't from Airbus, it's from Blagojevich's tax plan- that could easily drive them to relocate to DFW or ATL)

Any details on departure time ?

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According to flightstats.com the etd is 19:40 and the flight is LH 8943.

You can get a decent view of it from the inter terminal train between terminal 5 and economy parking. I tried to get a few photos this afternoon, the best one I uploaded here:

http://www.flickr.com/photos/87695163@N00/428479159/