O'Hare wins one court battle

A Washington, D.C., court ruled Friday that the Federal Aviation Administration performed a proper cost-benefit analysis on Chicago's plan to raise money for O'Hare International Airport expansion through fees on airfares. The district court's decision is an important step on the way to completing the O'Hare Modernization Program, said the project's Executive Director Rosemarie Andolino. The city is seeking to build six parallel runways at O'Hare. Andolino said numerous lawsuits filed against O'Hare expansion by the village of Bensenville will ultimately fail and "when the litigation is out of the way we can put a lot more people to work." But Joe Karaganis, attorney for Bensenville, said comments by the judges about the costs of the project will provide ammunition for another court case on the second phase of O'Hare construction.