Thoughts on O'Hare

I grew up with a fair amount of experience with O'Hare Airport. My sister and I sometimes used it as we traveled back and forth between our parents. It was the airport I flew out of when I went to France in 1992, and it was the airport I used when I left for college in Hawaii back in 1995.

But now, after more than 25 years, I realized something as my family went through O'Hare on the way to Germany.

O'Hare Airport is designed to be a big city airport, but it's a poor international travel hub.

Unlike Korea's Incheon Airport or Tokyo's Narita, there's no "international terminal." Everyone has to go through U.S. Immigration, even if they're just (like us) passing through.

Plus, there's no differentiation between U.S. and foreign travelers; we all stood in the same half-mile-long, two wrap-around line. In other cities, local nationals have separate lines because they can be processed faster. But O'Hare hasn't implemented ways or dedicated space to do that.

The other problem is that it's handling post-COVID levels of travel with COVID levels of personnel. "Problems overall include staff shortages and just the sheer demand for travel post-pandemic — everyone wants to get out and get on a plane to somewhere." [Source]
These factors combined to make otherwise separate issues into one big problem, which the word "mess" does not adequately convey.

And though my Army vocabulary *can*, I prefer not to utilize that here.