Chicago is My Home

12
May

Virgin America Petitioning FAA For Landing Rights to Chicago’s O’Hare Airport

Author: Adam Fendelman, Category: Travel

CHICAGO – Virgin America says it will petition the FAA this week for landing rights to operate eight daily flights out of Chicago’s O’Hare Airport.

The San Francisco-based start-up, which is affiliated with Britain’s Virgin Atlantic, wants to start offering four daily flights each to Los Angeles and San Francisco in Nov. 2008 when the airport opens its new runway. A new runway means increased flight-traffic capacity at O’Hare.

If it does raise the O’Hare limit of 88 landings per hour, the FAA says it will give newcomers the first shot for landing rights. However, Virgin America will have to secure gates at O’Hare either by leasing them from an existing airline or from the city.

The airline would compete for the California routes with United Airlines and American Airlines, which are the carriers that have traditionally dominated the west coast routes out of Chicago. An announcement from the FAA is expected in June 2008.

By Megan O’Neil