Viewing page 98 of 507
This transcription has been completed. Contact us with corrections.
90 HELICOPTER AIR SERVICE PROGRAM Senator MONRONEY. The DC-8 and Caravelle can come in. Is United flying the Caravelle in? Mr. PUCINSKI. They are flying 727's and I think some Caravelles. There has been no problem at all. Senator MONRONEY. The miles of walking that you have to do in O'Hare leads one to believe it is getting rapidly overcrowded. When will it be saturated? Mr. PUCINSKI. I believe it is saturated now. My feeling is that we have reached the peak now at O'Hare. I am convinced that when we reactivate Midway and get the lines back there, Midway can become one of the most efficient airports of this country if not the world. The facilities at Midway are peculiarly adaptable to fast in and out service. You quite properly point out the long walk that we have at O'Hare and some of the other airfields around the country. I think that we have every reason to believe that Midway will be activated. I can tell you this, though, that for the subsidy to Chicago Helicopter Airways to be dropped at this time would tragically set our whole timetable back, because there is a serious question in my mind whether we could possibly reactivate Midway if we don't have the connecting link. We are thinking of having a North-South expressway. But this is some time in the future. As a matter of fact, it has not even been clearly decided we will have it. SO right now for fast connecting service, CHA is our best bet. Senator MONRONEY. Do you have feeder lines going into Midway, or are they going into O'Hare? Mr. PUCINSKI. They are going into O'Hare. Senator MONRONEY. None of them going to Midway? Mr. PUCINSKI. They are going into O'Hare. Senator MONRONEY. None of them going to Midway? Mr. PUCINSKI. We feel that we need reactivation of Midway. Chicago certainly needs two major airfields. As a matter of fact, there is some talk about our needing a third major airfield. Senator MONRONEY. How about Megs? Is there a chance Megs may be reactivated as a commercial field to take the DC-9? What do you have at Megs? Mr. PUCINSKI. I would rather leave the answer to that question to the experts. My own judgement is that I doubt it because of the limitations on Megs. Senator MONRONEY. What distance runways do you have, 5,000? Mr. PUCINSKI. No; I believe it is 3,500. Senator MONRONEY. you have a lot of lake that you can pull that sand out of and maybe get another 2,500 feet and you will have a real downtown airport with over-the-lake approaches. Mr. PUCINSKI. Again, as I say, I would just as soon leave this to the experts in this field. My own judgement is that there would be extreme limitations on Megs, although right now our greatest emphasis is on Midway. Senator MONRONEY. I gather Midway is in your district and Megs is in somebody else's.
