O'Hare Airport renovation aims to improve dreadful customer satisfaction ranking
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Travelers check their flight status at O'Hare Airport on Jan. 12, 2024. Photo: Jim Vondruska/Getty Images
While work continues on renovations at O'Hare airport, a recent survey ranked it near the bottom in customer satisfaction.
Why it matters: O'Hare is one of the nation's busiest airports, serving more than 73 million passengers a year, and along with Midway brings in $45 billion a year in economic activity.
Driving the news: The new JD Power & Associates North American Airport Satisfaction Study ranks O'Hare at the bottom of the "mega" airport category.
- Midway also ranked low in the "large" category.
Methodology: The study looks at flight delays, airport costs and crowds. It also surveys customers on the uniqueness of the terminals, including decor, signage, stores and restaurants that celebrate the region.
Between the lines: These customer satisfaction surveys are precisely why the city is renovating its global hub.
- The $8 billion redesign of LaGuardia Airport in New York City has transformed the oft-maligned airport into one that tops reader's choice lists.
Yes, but: The $8.5 billion renovation project has been plagued by delays, putting O'Hare years behind other big city airports.
Flashback: The city announced the project in 2018 under then-Mayor Rahm Emanuel. The plan: Renovate the whole damn place while adding a global terminal that would connect the entire airport by 2026.
- But pandemic delays and rising costs for materials and labor ballooned the cost by a few billion dollars, which caused major airlines to pause their promised contributions to the renovation.
- Yet, Mayor Brandon Johnson reeled the airlines back earlier this summer by promising to cut costs and rearrange construction schedules.
State of play: While the bigger redevelopment plan inches forward, it hasn't stopped the airport from renovating the look and feel of some of the other terminals. The city completed terminal 5 renovations last year, with new vendors like Publican Quality Bread, Metropolis Coffee and Bar Siena Restaurant opening up.
- Terminal 3 renovations are set to be finished in 2027.
The intrigue: The overall project is expected to be completed in 2032, six years later than originally planned.
- The city has hired architect Jeanne Gang, who designed the Aqua building and the new St. Regis Hotel, to plan the new global terminal.
What's next: The city wants O'Hare to look and feel more like Chicago. It recently announced one of the largest concession bids in the country's history, opening up 122 opportunities for local businesses to set up shop at the airport.
- The bids call for 75 food and beverage, 34 retail and three duty free locations in terminals 1 and 3.
The bottom line: The airport could look drastically different a decade from now.
- That could go a long way to climbing up from the bottom.