Mitchell: Chicago's third airport?

[question everything]

Original URL: http://www.jsonline.com/bym/news/sep04/256396.asp

Mitchell: Chicago's third airport?
By RICK BARRETT and LARRY SANDLER
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Renewed debate about the future of Mitchell has emerged as on-time service at O'Hare lags - only two-thirds of O'Hare flights are running on time this year, well below the Federal Aviation Administration's 82% standard. Because of Chicago's central position in the nation's airline system, those delays have a coast-to-coast ripple effect.

Gov. Jim Doyle touched off the latest round of the Mitchell-vs.-O'Hare debate with a letter last month to 14 airlines' chief executive officers, urging them to slash flights at O'Hare and boost service at Mitchell.

Targeting the airlines that were under federal pressure to reduce flights at overcrowded O'Hare, Doyle called Mitchell "a more attractive alternative." He said northern Illinois residents could easily reach Mitchell by freeway, by bus from O'Hare and Midway Airport, and - starting later this year - by train.

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One carrier that welcomed Doyle's offer to make more flights available from Mitchell was Northwest Airlines. Northwest spokesman Kurt Ebenhoch said that's because Northwest already had been doing exactly what the governor suggested... Because Northwest's O'Hare flights serve only its hubs in Minneapolis, Detroit and Memphis and its Mitchell flights serve 12 cities, Northwest now offers "much better service" from Mitchell than from O'Hare, Ebenhoch said.

Frontier Airlines has flights from Milwaukee and Midway. The Denver-based airline is watching events at O'Hare closely as United, its biggest competitor, could be forced to trim its flight schedule.

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From the Sept. 5, 2004, editions of the Milwaukee Journal Sentinel
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