Welcome to Chicago!

On behalf of the Chicago Department of Aviation (CDA), welcome to O’Hare and Midway International Airports. You’re visiting at an exciting time for our airport community!
 

Thanks to Mayor Lori E. Lightfoot’s steady and sensible leadership with a focus on equitable recovery, Chicago is back and ready for a great summer.
 

At our airports, passenger traffic is gradually returning to pre-pandemic levels, and the airlines continue to invest heavily to ensure O’Hare and Midway remain critical to the air traffic network across the nation and the globe.
 

This is particularly true for our three airline partners that utilize our city as a major hub — American Airlines, Southwest Airlines and United Airlines. Between them they are adding nearly three dozen domestic destinations this year, such as:

•  Anchorage, Alaska

•  Martha’s Vineyard, Massachusetts

•  Hilton Head, South Carolina

•  Great Falls, Montana

•  Portland, Maine

•  Tulsa, Oklahoma

For a complete list of new domestic and international destinations, see
At the Airports (pg. 48 – 56).
 

Our airport community is also thrilled to host the Airport Minority Advisory Council (AMAC) and the group’s 37th annual Airport Business Diversity Conference, which will take place June 20 to 23 in Chicago.
 

The theme, “Redefining Aviation Opportunities Together,” focuses on how airports do business to keep diversity and inclusion in the forefront. The opportunities in aviation are endless, and AMAC is dedicated to advancing the full participation of minorities and women in employment and contracting opportunities throughout the aviation industry.
 

I welcome all AMAC participants to Chicago, and look forward to a comprehensive series of discussions about this issue that is paramount to our work at the CDA.

Thank you for reading, and for choosing O’Hare and Midway.

Sincerely,
Jamie L. Rhee
Commissioner
Chicago Department of Aviation