LETTERS

Perhaps if you build it, they won't come
A recent article, "A Wing and a Fare" (April 1996, page 30), suggests that airlines might solve congestion problems at O'Hare by diverting connections to other airports, thereby causing damage to the regional economy.

Yet connecting traffic has very little economic benefit. Connecting passengers rarely leave the airport, rarely stay in hotels, rarely eat in restaurants.

The "Chicago Airport Capacity Study" (KPMG Peat Marwick, 1988) quantifies the low economic impact of connecting passengers by asserting that an originating passenger causes 4.5 times the employment as a connecting passenger.

With these figures in mind, converting a connecting passenger to an originating passenger is an economic plus. Yet there are better ways for increasing capacity.

The airlines are likely to solve the congestion problem at O'Hare and Midway as they have in the past, by using larger planes and by modestly increasing load factors. These solutions will keep passenger traffic growing without new airports (or even new runways). And increasing traffic this way helps reduce airline costs, a paramount concern in the '90s.

The real congestion is on the ground. The solution is to enhance the terminals and surface transportation at our existing airports.

O'Hare relies too much on private automobiles and makes it too hard to use alternatives, especially for those coming from the suburbs. Midway, with a terminal built in the era of the tiny DC3, is now overwhelmed by 737s. Needed surface improvements should not be held hostage to Peotone.

There is an airport experiencing reduced operations — Denver International. One year after replacing Stapleton, passenger enplanements have declined by 5.9 percent and connections as a percent of business have dropped. Denver's problem is cost, which has gone from $4.00 per passenger a few years ago to $18.22 today. High cost, not congestion, inspired airline schedulers to divert flights. High cost, not congestion, sends passengers 70 miles south to Colorado Springs, now booming as an economy airport.

The cliche, "Build it and they will come," has proven false. Chicago has busy airports because it has high travel demand and low cost.

Let's not spoil it with a costly new airport.

David Scheibelhut
Illinois Chapter Sierra Club
Chicago

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Illinois Issues May 1996 | 39