The world’s busiest airport also has some of the oldest terminals among the largest hubs around the globe.
Chicago O’Hare International Airport (ORD) is the only one of the world’s 25 largest airports that hasn’t built or redesigned a terminal or concourse of at least 500,000 square feet in 25 years.
The airport, which ranks as the busiest airport for takeoffs and landings, sees significant delays in taxi times to and from gates, largely due to congestion. In fact, taxi times at the hub rank among the longest of any airport in the United States.
O’Hare is undertaking a major terminal overhaul program to open two new concourses and a new terminal to increase capacity and reduce congestion by 2033. But delays and taxi times could worsen before they improve because of construction complications, according to a new study.
“The next seven years will be highly challenging due to rising traveler expectations and construction-related impacts, resulting in concourse congestion and relatively long taxi times,” says a just-released study on O’Hare from DePaul University.
The FAA has implemented flight caps to limit the number of planes allowed to takeoff and land at O’Hare as the airport contends with congestion, especially during the construction period. Regulators cut about 12% of flights at the hub in the spring of 2026.
However, the study says airport officials should take additional measures to reduce construction’s impact on airport operations.
Most importantly, the study suggests airport officials utilize modular construction techniques to build most of the project offsite and transport the pre-fabricated buildings into place later.
This would especially benefit fliers as the new Global Terminal, the project’s largest undertaking, is under construction.
The new Global Terminal at O’Hare “will almost certainly be built in phases, requiring travelers to navigate an airport undergoing heavy construction,” the study says. “United will face the biggest challenges because it relies more heavily on T2, which will be demolished.”
Building most of the terminal offsite would help reduce construction’s impact on fliers and airport operations.
The last time O’Hare opened a significant new terminal was in 1993, when the hub debuted its Terminal 5, the study says.
Under the current ORDNext improvement plan, O’Hare officials plan to open the first of two new satellite concourses in 2028, with the second following in 2030. The Global Terminal would be the final and most ambitious piece to open in 2033.
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