Chicago O'Hare International Airport

O'Hare Airport is the second busiest airport in the world and the 7th largest in size. Until 1998 it was the world's busiest airport counting number of passengers, and for one year, 2014, it was the world's largest by number of flights. But Hartsfield Atlanta has beaten it several times, much because the traffic had to be cut down due to the many cancellations and delays. O'Hare has 9 runways, more then any other airport in the world. It is situated far away from the city, to the far Northwest suburbs, 27km from the Loop, and takes more then one hour to reach by L train from downtown. O'Hare was built in 1943 and has 3 control towers and 5 terminals, of which 4 open. Terminal 3 has a large Hilton hotel. Terminal 5 is the largest one, 4 is about to be torn down. Terminal 1 is mainly operated by United, and was designed by Helmut Jahn. Chicago also has two smaller airports; Midway (that was the main airport before O'Hare was built) and Rockford. O'Hare is a major hub for American Airlines and United Airlines. O'Hare has access to 210 destinations, of which 57 abroad. The airport has an underground pedestrian walkway that connects Concource B with C, and is illuminated with neon lights, an installation from 1987 called "Sky is the limit". There is a people mover train that is connecting the terminals.

We flew to Chicago-O'Hare from Toronto, after our visit there, a short flight by United, less then an hour long. The flight home to Copenhagen from Chicago was via Toronto, with a small Air Canada aircraft. This flight was shaky with a lot of turbulence, due to strong winds and a hurricane that was approaching Ontario. In Toronto we switched to a large Boeing 787 Dreamliner to Copenhagen, also operated by Air Canada. The Dreamliner was much more comfortable to fly with.

All immigration controls, security checks and finger prints were made at Toronto's LB Pearson Airport, so we didn't have to do anything when we arrived in the USA, there was not even a customs control at O'Hare. The exit was near and the luggage also arrived very fast, so within less then 15 minutes we were on the ground of United States. To get to the L trains that takes people to downtown/the Loop, we had to go through walkways underground to the station.