FAA Report Concludes Chicago Airspace Could Handle South Suburban Airport With “Minimal impact” to O’Hare, Midway

WASHINGTON DC – Congresswoman Robin Kelly today released a new federal report which concludes that the metro-Chicago airspace is capable of handling a third major airport and that the proposed South Suburban Airport would have "minimal impact" on current operations at O'Hare and Midway.

The Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) released its study to Congresswoman Kelly, who said: "This is another positive step for the third airport -- which will create jobs for Illinois and cement Chicago's role as America's premier aviation hub."

"Chicago's airspace is crowded and complex, but this latest FAA airspace analysis concludes that the proposed South Suburban Airport is feasible and would have minimal impact to O'Hare, Midway, Kankakee and other Chicago area airport operations," the Congresswoman said.

The lengthy FAA report concludes "the integration of (the) proposed SSA in the Chicago metropolitan airspace structure is feasible… with minimal impact" to existing airports. The report does acknowledge that the FAA would likely alter regional flight patterns in the future if the new airport were to expand.

The report also notes that the South Suburban Airport would have its own air traffic control tower and that the airport operations wouldn't interfere with a skydiving school or military base at the Kankakee airport.

Rep. Kelly last spring hosted a meeting with U.S. Transportation Secretary Antony Foxx and several Illinois lawmakers, during which she asked the Secretary to expedite the FAA airspace analysis, which had been projected to take two years.

"I want to thank Secretary Foxx and the FAA for delivering this report ahead of schedule," Kelly said.

Copies of the report were released to Kelly, U.S. Senators Dick Durbin and Mark Kirk, and the Illinois Department of Transportation.