My first visit to Chicago O’Hare International Airport was to get a connecting flight as I as flying from Los Angeles to Boston. Being near the centre of the United States, Chicago O’Hare is a natural hub for many east-west flights. I think I was flying with American Airlines – a code-share partner of Qantas with whom I had flown to Los Angeles with from Sydney Australia.
The announcements by the flight crew right before landing at O’Hare were to help passengers get to their connecting flight, but it had me worried. We were going togate 52 and I needed to get to gate 148 within 10 minutes of landing! I hadn’t heard of an airport with gate numbers going that high before, the flight crew seemed confident I would be able to get to the connecting gate in time.
As it turned out, gate 148 was almost directly opposite gate 52 on the same concourse. I don’t know how that numbering system was worked out!
That was long time ago now – in the 90’s, and the terminals and gates have gone through numerous changes and upgrades since then.
Some statistics for Chicago O’Hare International Airport.
ICAO: KORD
Runways: 8 runways – the newest being over 55 years old
Rank: 6th busiest airport in the world
Terminals: 4 terminals, numbered 1, 2, 3 and 5.
Concourses: 9 concourses lettered B, C, E, F, G, H, K, L, M
Gates: There are 250 gates! Gates are now numbered with a their concourse letter and a gate number. ie: C31 is gate 31 on concourse “C” (Terminal 1)
The airport is very centrally located in Chicago, so to and from the airport does not take long (traffic permitting).
Chicago O’Hare has a great web site with all the information you’ll need whether you’re flying in, flying out, or transiting through. https://www.chicago-ohare-airport.com/map