Runway tweaks mainly affect international flights

A change in runway use at O'Hare International Airport will be on the radar screen of pilots next month, but passengers shouldn't notice major differences, Federal Aviation Administration officials said Monday.

As part of the O'Hare expansion project, one of the airport's most well-used runways, 14 Right/32 Left, will be shortened permanently on May 6. The diagonal runway's length will decrease from 13,000 feet to 9,700. The reduction is to make way for construction of a new runway on the south end of the airport, FAA spokesman Tony Molinaro said.

Used mainly as a departure runway, the change will shift larger, international aircraft requiring a significant stretch for takeoffs to Runway 10 Left/28 Right, a 13,000-foot runway extended in 2008. This should affect only a small number of flights, Molinaro said. The shortened runway will continue to be used for about 40 percent of departures from O'Hare.

In addition, flights landing from the southeast, making up 1 percent to 2 percent of O'Hare arrivals, can no longer use the shortened runway as of May 6.

Runway 14R/32L will be completely closed at the end of the O'Hare modernization project, which involves building six parallel runways.

Also this year, the FAA will install new airport surveillance radar in West Chicago. Consisting of a 70-foot to 75-foot tower and large antenna, the system will be the third for O'Hare and is intended to complement the parallel runways.

The new radar provides for "high and wide" approaches allowing aircraft to come in from wider angles and stay up higher for longer, Molinaro said.

"It gives you more efficiencies, more choices and more ways to blend in traffic," he noted. "And when you're higher, it might help with noise."

The radar will be installed over the summer and fall.