April 17th, 2009 | 
Author: A recent discussion on Airliners.net about US Airways’ presence at Chicago- O’Hare got me thinking; how will the airlines and airport authority handle Delta’s move to Terminal 2 to join merger partner Northwest.
I know that Continental will be moving to Terminal 1 to join United, so the the lounge operated together by Northwest and Continental will become a Delta SkyClub. I assume, Delta will prefer to pick up additional ‘E’ gates instead of moving to the F councourse . This makes sense due to the proximity of the lounge.
Since US Airways uses two (at times three) ‘E’ gates, this will surely cause trouble and limitations for Delta. The combined US Airways and America West need more gate space than what pre-merger US Airways had. I’m also sure US Airways would welcome an opportunity to consolidate gates into one specific concourse as walking from ‘E’ to ‘F’ or vice versa is a bit of a schleep!
I’ve been thinking about this for a few weeks and I think it would be best for Air Canada to move to the E concourse, so United Express can operate out of Air Canada’s gates. That would free up F6 and F12 so US could use it permanently instead of sharing it with United Express.
Also, what would happen with Delta’s ‘L’ gates? From what I’ve heard, American Airlines would try to pick up most of them, but couldn’t JetBlue relocate from ‘E’ to the ‘L’ area to make room for Delta?
With the O’Hare’s largest carriers cutting back on flights, it does make sense to consolidate gate space and allow for those who are still operating at maximum capacity to ‘move about freely’. No pun intended.
Have a nice clicK life,
-Mark
Posted in Airline News, Personal Thoughts | 
Tags: american airlines, continental, delta, gates, jetblue, ORD, united, us airways
First off, Air Canada is already at the E concourse using gates E1, E1A and E2. UAX cannot, however, move to those gates as Mark has suggested.
F6 is a 2 flight, outside operation gate accessible by stairs. United Express shares F6 with USAir at night when USAir needs to utilize the jetbridge and park a plane overnight.
F12 is a 5 aircraft, mixed operation gate. F12A has the jetbridge affixed and F12 B,C,D and E are outside operations, accessible via stairs. All used by United Express.
Air Canada gates only allow for 3 aircraft while United Express’ F6 and F12 and the corresponding gate assignments allows for 7 aircraft.
JetBlue I presume will not allow to be moved to Terminal 3 as most of their passengers make connections with United thus making their current position in Concourse E most beneficial for their passengers.
I look forward to see how the Airport Authority and the Airlines work this out!
Now that CO is moving out of T2 and co-locating with United in T1 in June, will Delta take over all CO gates or will there a full blown shuffle?
As a US Airways flyer I would like all US Airways gates next to each other and not split between E & F. That said, JetBlue isn’t allied with anyone, so they should move over to ex-Delta’ ‘L’ gates unless AA claims all of them! Would make more space on the ‘E’ end.
-Mark