O’Hare International Airport remains one of the busiest airports

For much of its nearly 70-year history, O’Hare International Airport (ORD) in Chicago, Illinois, was the world’s busiest in terms of passenger travel (ie, takeoffs and landings per day). As the world’s busiest international aviation hub, held to a very high standard by global scrutiny, there were several complaints about the level of flight delays taking place there (one study finds that the number of delays at ORD alone represents more one-sixth of all delays in the US). Thus, after a 2005 government-imposed cap on ORD flights per day (to reduce delays), Hartsfield-Jackson Atlanta International Airport has taken on the “world’s busiest” claim. Still, O’Hare has a sizable international presence, with more than 60 destinations to foreign lands, and is the fourth busiest international hub in the US.

Consistently voted ‘Best Airport in North America’ by several different sources for years (before the 2005 changes), ORD originally expanded from its humble beginnings during World War II as a mere fighter aircraft manufacturing plant. . As the 1950s rolled around and airliners were increasingly used in aviation hubs around the world, the Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) realized that Chicago’s largest airport at the time (Chicago Midway International – MDW) would be too small and crowded to support the first jet aircraft. generation, so the FAA called for ORD to become the future of commercial aviation in Chicago. With the construction of an international terminal in 1958 and the expansion of ORD in 1962, all of MDW’s traffic moved to O’Hare and almost immediately saw annual passenger travel in the 10 million passengers. Today, ORD serves 70 million international and domestic passengers annually and maintains its status as the premier aviation hub in the US Midwest.