O'Hare not busy enough to regain No. 1 spot

Not only did O'Hare International Airport fail to win back its "nation's busiest" title in 2007, it shed about 2 percent of its flights, a development officials predict will be reversed in the near future.

Atlanta's Hartsfield-Jackson Airport with 994,466 arrivals and departures came out on top, according to a Federal Aviation Administration report released Wednesday.

This marks the third year Atlanta beat out O'Hare, where 935,000 flights were logged in 2007, a drop of 2.4 percent compared to 958,643 in 2006. Figures were preliminary, the FAA said.

O'Hare was the world's busiest airport from 2001 through 2004.

Chicago Department of Aviation officials blamed flight caps that reduce runway congestion and air traffic for the low numbers and predicted a resurgence in business starting at the end of the year.

Oct. 31 is supposed to mark the lifting of flight caps at O'Hare while November is the projected completion date for runway improvements.

"We expect a new runway and runway extension will increase our capacity substantially," aviation department Communications Director Karen Pride said.

In addition to the flight caps, DePaul University transportation expert Joe Schwieterman surmised that airlines saving money by packing more people into planes has been a factor.

"The big network carriers are holding the line on capacity," Schwieterman said. "They're even cutting routes and pushing load factors to get ever closer to 90 percent."

A spokeswoman for United Airlines, which has its main hub at O'Hare, said there were no significant decreases in operations although the company had cut some domestic flights to focus on international service.

Meanwhile, Midway International Airport saw a boost in takeoffs and landings with 304,657 flights recorded in 2007 -- up 2 percent from 298,547 in 2006.

"Midway has added flights and destinations," Pride said.

With fewer flights, you might expect an improvement in delays, but that isn't necessarily so.

From Jan. 1 to Oct. 31, 2006, O'Hare ranked 32nd out of 32 airports in terms of on-time departures with a success rate of 69 percent. Its ranking remained the same last year with a 67.5 percent score, according to the U.S. Department of Transportation.

For arrivals, however, O'Hare was 30th in 2006 with 69 percent of flights touching down on time. That improved to 28th in 2007 even though the airport's score dipped to 67 percent.