Call me crazy, but I always felt Project Runway was a show that should've been about airports. So much for that plan. Beginning today, a hat trick of new runways opens up at three major airports across the US. Airport expansion is quite rare here in the US and seeing three huge new runways opening simultaneously is unheard of. Airports are more likely to be closed in the United States rather than opened.
My home airport, Washington-Dulles got its first new runway since it opened in 1962. Runway 1L /19R is 9,400 feet long and appears to be accessible only by Taxiway Tango currently. For this runway to be truly effective, this runway will need all its taxiways connected so it doesn't snarl traffic on 12/30.
At Seattle-Tacoma, Ruwnay 16R/34L is officially operational after 15 years of debate and Chicago-O'Hare gets 9L/27R at the north end of the massive airport. Interestingly, it turns out that airlines are less than enthusiastic about the next phase of O'Hare expansion.
If you want more airport news, I highly recommend Terminal Q authored by my colleague, the always insightful Megan Kuhn. Terminal Q just migrated from its original home over at Blogger to Flightglobal.com, so stop by and wish her a warm welcome!
My home airport, Washington-Dulles got its first new runway since it opened in 1962. Runway 1L /19R is 9,400 feet long and appears to be accessible only by Taxiway Tango currently. For this runway to be truly effective, this runway will need all its taxiways connected so it doesn't snarl traffic on 12/30.
At Seattle-Tacoma, Ruwnay 16R/34L is officially operational after 15 years of debate and Chicago-O'Hare gets 9L/27R at the north end of the massive airport. Interestingly, it turns out that airlines are less than enthusiastic about the next phase of O'Hare expansion.
If you want more airport news, I highly recommend Terminal Q authored by my colleague, the always insightful Megan Kuhn. Terminal Q just migrated from its original home over at Blogger to Flightglobal.com, so stop by and wish her a warm welcome!
I doubt 12/30 will be used simultaneously with the other runways. The added value is that it will allow two runways for independent arrivals (01/31 L+R) and one for departures (01/31 C). Using 12/30 would cause to much crossing traffic.
Driving home from work last night around 6pm CST, the visibility was good and you could see aircraft stacked up about 10 deep coming into O'Hare from the east over the lake. At first I thought I was seeing things, but there were three parallel queues coming in, and the number of A/Cs in the airspace was remarkable. It was all I could do to stay on the road...