Departure
97%
vs 95% ▲ 2
MY FS FLIGHTS
MY FS FLIGHTS
Chicago O'Hare International Airport is one of the busiest airports in the world, lying on the Northwest Side of Chicago, Illinois, about 17 miles from the Loop. Operated by the Chicago Department of Aviation, it serves as a major hub for American and United Airlines within a large Class B environment, and its eight-runway layout makes it a formidable and fascinating destination for simulator pilots. Its history stretches back to a wartime Douglas aircraft plant, and it grew to become, for over three decades, the world's busiest airport by passenger traffic.
Chicago O'Hare International Airport (KORD/ORD) is the primary international gateway for Chicago, situated on the city's Northwest Side roughly 17 miles from downtown. It is operated by the Chicago Department of Aviation and serves as a hub for American Airlines and United Airlines, as well as an operating base for Frontier Airlines. For the flight simulator pilot, O'Hare offers an unusually complex and rewarding challenge: eight physical runways, dense Class B airspace, and one of the highest volumes of aircraft movements of any airport on earth.
O'Hare sits within Class B controlled airspace, reflecting its status as one of the busiest airports in the United States, and lies on the Northwest Side of Chicago, Illinois, about 17 miles (27 km) northwest of the Loop business district. The airport covers a very large site of some 7,627 acres, and its position beneath the Chicago Class B shelf means arriving and departing traffic operates under close radar control throughout the surrounding terminal area.
O'Hare has eight physical runways, all hard-surfaced and lit. The longest, 10L/28R, measures 12,970 ft. The 09C/27C pair runs 11,546-11,580 ft, and 09R/27L runs 11,560-11,562 ft; both are equipped with ILS. The 10C/28C pair measures 10,770 ft, also with ILS. The shorter set comprises 04R/22L at 8,058 ft, 04L/22R at approximately 7,490-7,491 ft, 09L/27R at 7,481 ft, and 10R/28L at 7,465 ft. Most runways are served by ILS approaches, though the 04L direction is not listed with ILS while its reciprocal 22R is.
Radio services at O'Hare include Approach on 119 MHz, Departure on 125 MHz, Tower on 126.9 MHz, Ground on 121.675 MHz, Clearance Delivery, ATIS and ASOS both on 135.4 MHz, plus published frequencies for Clearance (121.6 MHz), PTD (126.2 MHz) and Unicom (122.95 MHz). The airfield is fully equipped with ILS approaches to the majority of its runway ends, reflecting its role as a major all-weather international hub.
As a major Class B international airport, O'Hare does not operate a conventional visual circuit pattern; all arrivals and departures are handled under positive radar control by approach, departure and tower controllers, with pilots expected to follow assigned routings, altitudes and sequencing rather than a published visual joining procedure.
O'Hare's origins lie in a Douglas Aircraft manufacturing plant built during the Second World War to produce C-54 Skymaster transports, with an adjoining four-runway airfield known as Douglas Field, later Douglas Airport, on a site formerly occupied by the small German-American farming community of Orchard Place. The plant built 655 C-54s, more than half of all those produced, before Douglas's wartime contract ended and the company chose to concentrate civil production elsewhere. The site was subsequently renamed Orchard (Douglas) Airport and assigned the IATA code ORD, a designation it retains to this day. During the Korean War the United States Air Force used the old Douglas Field apron extensively, including as a fighter base for the 62nd Fighter-Interceptor Squadron, at a time when the airport had no scheduled airline service. In 1949 Chicago City Council renamed the airport Chicago O'Hare International Airport in honour of Edward 'Butch' O'Hare, the US Navy's first Medal of Honor recipient of the Second World War. As the first major airport planned after the war, O'Hare pioneered design concepts including dedicated concourses, direct highway access, jet bridges and underground refuelling systems. Airline traffic initially favoured Chicago Midway, but improvements including an international terminal opened in August 1958 and continued expansion helped O'Hare overtake Midway; O'Hare went on to become the world's busiest airport by passenger traffic from 1963 until it was eclipsed by Atlanta in 1998.
O'Hare remains one of the busiest airports in the world, recording more than 857,000 aircraft movements in 2025, an average of over 2,300 per day, the most of any airport globally. It functions as a major hub for American Airlines and United Airlines, the latter headquartered nearby in Chicago, and as an operating base for Frontier Airlines. The airport is the largest in the world by runway count, with eight runways in use, and continues to handle very high volumes of both passenger and cargo traffic alongside its extensive scheduled airline operations.