Mid-Summer Spotting Part #1: A Recent Look at the Widebody Traffic at Chicago O’Hare Airport.
The ongoing Covid-19 pandemic continues to affect air traffic and the airline industry globally. Air Travel is slowly recovering with most airlines adding flights and putting aircraft back into service, but there is a very long way to go yet. I recently spent a few days spotting down at Chicago O’Hare International Airport and this downturn in traffic was very evident.
On a typical day landing traffic will use up to four runways for simultaneous approaches, during my visit the traffic flow was light enough at times that all arriving traffic was easily accommodated on one runway. Despite this downturn in traffic, O’Hare still offers the aviation enthusiast plenty of interesting aircraft types and airlines to be seen on a daily basis. In part #1 of this three-part series, we take a look at the some of the recent widebody or “heavy jet” movements. It is worth noting that since the downturn in air travel begin some of these aircraft are not carrying passengers but have been turned into freighters flying cargo and mail.
Delta Airlines is one of those airlines that are not flying passengers on its 777’s out of O’Hare to Frankfurt Germany, they are hauling cargo and mail. Chicago O’Hare has always been a major hub for air travel, and will continue to be even in the midst of a pandemic.
In part #2 we will take a look at the common and not so common freighters that can be seen at Chicago O’Hare, until next time, “Blue Skies To All!”
