About O'Hare Airport
For more than forty years, Chicago's O'Hare International Airport was the busiest airport in the world, handling mind-boggling amounts of air traffic. In 2005, after the FAA forced O'Hare to reduce the number of daily flights it handled, it was surpassed by Atlanta's Hartsfield-Jackson Airport. However, a major $6 billion expansion is underway which will almost certainly reclaim the trophy of World's Busiest Airport for O'Hare.
O'Hare's airport code is ORD, named after its original name, Orchard Field. O'Hare is named after Edward "Butch" O'Hare, a WWII pilot, and became Chicago's main airport only in the 1950s. Before then, Chicago flights were processed at Midway Airport.
O'Hare is within the municipal limits of the City of Chicago though it is 17 miles northwest of downtown Chicago. It is under the authority of the City of Chicago Department of Aviation.
Chicago ORD is the flagship hub of United Airlines, which accounts for nearly half of all passenger traffic at O'Hare. More than 76 million passengers passed through O'Hare Airport in 2006. O'Hare flights reach more than 60 foreign cities.
O'Hare has won Best Airport in North America for 9 and 10 years straight in Business Traveler Magazine and Global Traveler Magazine.