The article below from NYTimes.com has been sent to you by psa188@xxxxxxxxx /--------- E-mail Sponsored by Fox Searchlight ------------\ GARDEN STATE: NOW PLAYING IN NY & LA - SELECT CITIES AUG 6 GARDEN STATE stars Zach Braff, Natalie Portman, Peter Sarsgaard and Ian Holm. NEWSWEEK's David Ansen says "Writer-Director Zach Braff has a genuine filmmaker's eye and is loaded with talent." Watch the teaser trailer that has all of America buzzing and talk back with Zach Braff on the Garden State Blog at: http://www.foxsearchlight.com/gardenstate/index_nyt.html \----------------------------------------------------------/ Delays at O'Hare Cause Frustration and Debate July 31, 2004 By MONICA DAVEY CHICAGO, July 30 - As delays at O'Hare International Airport have reached record levels, the federal authorities have called a rare meeting with the airlines for next week, and local leaders here began debating, once more, whether the airport should grow. Passengers, meanwhile, were left to brace themselves for a season of waiting. "A half-hour delay is almost typical," said Giovanni Principe, who flew to a drizzly O'Hare Airport on Friday morning but said he had no plans to fly again this weekend, even though he and his wife were on their way to Niagara Falls. "Between the security delays and flight time changes, I'd rather drive," said Mr. Principe, of Palatine, Ill., as he waited for his bags. Judith A. Bongiorno, who was preparing to fly to San Francisco, was calm. Ms. Bongiorno, of Barrington, has stoically come to expect delays. She knows the drill. "Sometimes, the flights come in early, but then they don't get a gate," Ms. Bongiorno said. "A lot of times, when you're leaving, you might pull away from the gate on time, but then you'll sit in line on the runway because there is this long line of planes." The woes at O'Hare, which has more landings and takeoffs than any other airport in the world, have been growing since late last year. Since November, the airport's monthly rate of on-time arrivals and departures has consistently come in last or second-to-last among the nation's 31 major airports, the federal Bureau of Transportation Statistics said. The authorities consider a flight "delayed" if it falls more than 15 minutes behind schedule, and since the start of 2004, O'Hare has already logged about 58,600 such delays: more than the entire year's worth of delays at the airport in each of the past three years. In May, Chicago's airport set a new and distressing record: nearly 14,500 delays in a single month. Those figures prompted Norman Y. Mineta, the transportation secretary, to call a meeting of airline officials next Wednesday at Federal Aviation Administration headquarters in Washington. All domestic airlines serving O'Hare are invited - though not required - to attend the meeting, where Mr. Mineta hopes to reduce flight schedules and, along the way, reduce flight delays. "O'Hare's on-time performance is unacceptable and has a substantial ripple effect on our nation's aviation system," Mr. Mineta said in a news release. Already this year, the F.A.A. has tried other methods to stop the rise in delays at O'Hare. In January, it asked the airport's biggest airlines, United and American, to cut flights in the busiest travel hours by 5 percent. Then in April, the agency sought another 2.5 percent in schedule cuts from the airlines. Representatives from United Airlines and American Airlines, whose flights account for about 88 percent of O'Hare's business, said Friday that officials from their companies planned to attend next week's meeting. The representatives acknowledged that delays were a serious problem at the airport, but suggested that some smaller airlines should take some of the blame. When American and United agreed to cut their schedules earlier in the year, smaller carriers stepped in with new flights, said Mary Frances Fagan, a spokeswoman for American. Talk of delays at O'Hare has reawakened another long-raging political debate in Illinois. On one side are those, including Mayor Richard M. Daley, who want to expand O'Hare, on the city's northwest edge, as a way to ease flight congestion. Advocates of the idea say an expansion will cost $6.6 billion and will eventually mean additional runways, relocated runways, a new terminal and an automated people-mover system. On the other side are Representative Jesse L. Jackson Jr., a Democrat from Chicago, Senator Peter G. Fitzgerald, a Republican, and a group of mayors from towns near O'Hare who have pressed instead for a third airport in the south suburbs. They say a new airport would take some of the burden from O'Hare and Midway Airports. Senator Fitzgerald reacted to the news of O'Hare's delay problems this week by accusing Mayor Daley and United Airlines of wanting to create delays to build the case for an expanded O'Hare. "They would have had to know that this is what would result," said Senator Fitzgerald, whose views were first reported in The Chicago Tribune on Friday. Opponents of expanding O'Hare say the cost will run far higher - closer to $25 billion - and say it will still not add enough extra flight capacity to be worthwhile. "Building a third Chicago airport provides a very big bang for relatively modest bucks," Senator Fitzgerald said in a telephone interview on Friday. "Tearing up and redoing O'Hare provides very little bang for very big bucks." John Roberson, the commissioner for Mr. Daley's department of aviation, called Mr. Fitzgerald's contentions false and puzzling. "There is absolutely no basis or foundation for saying United and the city deliberately created delays in order to substantiate the expansion program," Mr. Roberson said. And Jeff Green, a spokesman for United, called Mr. Fitzgerald's claims about intentionally wanting delays "absurd." "Senator Fitzgerald has a very active imagination," Mr. Green said, adding that every minute a plane is late costs United Airlines $30 in fuel and extra labor costs. "We would not knowingly create delays for ourselves. Delays cost airlines money. Senator Fitzgerald is clearly a supporter of a third airport and he opposes expansion." Back at O'Hare, where 490,000 landings and takeoffs occurred in the first six months of this year, Eric Doney was not so worried about delays. Sure, they can be bad, but the notion of an airport expansion is worrisome, said Mr. Doney, of Champaign, Ill. The place is already too huge, he said. "My mom is 70 years old, and she won't even come to O'Hare," Mr. Doney said. "She once had to walk from one end of the airport to the other." Jo Napolitano contributed reporting for this article. http://www.nytimes.com/2004/07/31/national/31ohare.html?ex=1092295138&ei=1&en=075137d0e7fec972 --------------------------------- Get Home Delivery of The New York Times Newspaper. Imagine reading The New York Times any time & anywhere you like! Leisurely catch up on events & expand your horizons. Enjoy now for 50% off Home Delivery! Click here: http://homedelivery.nytimes.com/HDS/SubscriptionT1.do?mode=SubscriptionT1&ExternalMediaCode=W24AF HOW TO ADVERTISE --------------------------------- For information on advertising in e-mail newsletters or other creative advertising opportunities with The New York Times on the Web, please contact onlinesales@xxxxxxxxxxx or visit our online media kit at http://www.nytimes.com/adinfo For general information about NYTimes.com, write to help@xxxxxxxxxxxx Copyright 2004 The New York Times Company