Source: The Points Guy
Summary
The Chicago O’Hare International Airport (ORD) is undergoing a $12.5 billion expansion called “ORDNext,” including a new Global Terminal and concourses. The project, delayed from its original 2028 completion date, now aims to open the Global Terminal in 2034. Concourse D is scheduled to open by 2028, with Concourse E following in phases. The expansion includes new gates, a train system, and improved connections for international and domestic flights. The FAA has capped flights through 2027, prompting airlines to use larger planes to increase capacity.
Our Reading
The escape is carefully planned.
ORDNext reworks O’Hare’s layout with new concourses and a global terminal.
Flights are capped, but airlines add more seats per plane.
Passengers will move between terminals without leaving secure areas.
Chicago’s identity is embedded in the new design, but the airport remains a construction site.
Travelers will soon find themselves in a terminal that feels more like a blueprint than a destination.
The latest ORDNext timeline
The next piece of the ORDNext expansion, Concourse D, is due to open in just two years, according to an Aug. 21 bond prospectus from the Chicago Department of Aviation. Connected aboveground to Concourse C, Concourse D will serve both domestic and international flights with 18 of its 19 gates capable of handling either one twin-aisle plane or two single-aisle planes when it opens by the end of 2028. International arrivals, however, cannot begin until the Global Terminal is complete.
Work on the Global Terminal
Work on the Global Terminal is scheduled to begin in 2029, and it’s not set to open until 2034 — at least six years later than originally planned, the prospectus shows. The terminal designed by a consortium led by the Chicago architecture firm Studio Gang is the centerpiece of the ORDNext program.
Improved passenger experience
The Global Terminal “will allow for improved processing and the ability for passengers to transfer from international flights without leaving the secured area,” the Chicago aviation department said. In other words, travelers arriving on international flights and connecting to domestic ones at ORD will no longer need to schlep from Terminal 5 to the main terminal core.
Design and identity
The new terminal aims to highlight Chicago in a way ORD’s existing terminals do not. “We [feel] that the moment you step out of the plane into the terminal you [should] feel like you’re in Chicago,” Juliane Wolf, a design principal at Studio Gang, said in 2020.
Concourse E and delays
Concourse E, which is west of Concourses C and D, will serve regional jets and mainline single-aisle planes on domestic flights. It will open in two phases: a 14-gate northern segment in 2030 and a 10-gate southern segment around 2034. First approved in 2018, ORDNext has faced multiple challenges, including the COVID-19 pandemic, cost increases and, as the new timeline confirms, construction delays.
