=20 ---------------------------------------------------------------------- This article was sent to you by someone who found it on SFGate. The original article can be found on SFGate.com here: http://www.sfgate.com/cgi-bin/article.cgi?file=3D/n/a/2006/08/24/financial/= f214225D55.DTL --------------------------------------------------------------------- Thursday, August 24, 2006 (AP) O'Hare Flight Caps in Place Through 2008 (08-24) 21:42 PDT Chicago (AP) -- The Federal Aviation Administration on Thursday extended by two years a cap on the number of flights into O'Hare International Airport in an effort to curtail delays at one of the world's busiest airports. Domestic airlines will continue to be limited to a combined 88 arrivals per hour between 7 a.m. and 8 p.m. until Oct. 31, 2008 — at which point the FAA expects Chicago to have completed the first runway associated with O'Hare's planned $15 billion expansion. O'Hare's last-place ranking in on-time performance among the busiest 31 U.S. airports in 2004 first prompted the FAA to impose the cap. The agency will only lift the requirement if its semiannual review of O'Hare operations shows delays will not increase, the Chicago Tribune reported on its Web site Thursday night. Meanwhile, the agency also announced a lottery system offering new airlines a chance to operate at O'Hare if the cap is lifted. If the cap is raised to 89 or 90 arrivals per hour, only carriers that don't use the airfield or that operate limited O'Hare flights could enter for the additional slots. All carriers could enter the lottery if the cap is lifted to 91 or more hourly arrivals. United and American airlines, which control more than 85 percent of O'Ha= re flights — or more than 400 arrivals a day each — objected to the lottery, noting in documents filed with the agency that they had cut their schedules to meet the flight caps. "It seems perplexing that any increase in capacity would not be returned to the carriers that reduced their schedules to begin with," said Mary Frances Fagan, a spokeswoman for Fort Worth, Texas-based American, a unit of AMR Corp. A United spokeswoman declined to comment, but FAA documents show the unit of Elk Grove Village-based UAL Corp. argued that adequate competition exists at O'Hare. ---------------------------------------------------------= ------------- Copyright 2006 AP