Scott Fitzgerald: “O'Hare has been at capacity since 1969. In fact, it was in that year that the FAA first put delay controls in at O'Hare…”

“O'Hare has been at capacity since 1969. In fact, it was in that year that the FAA first put delay controls in at O'Hare Airport. Unadvisedly, I think 2 years ago, Congress lifted the delay controls at O'Hare and LaGuardia, and delays went up exponentially. That has kind of renewed and intensified the crisis we have in aviation in this country. I hope we will be able to work out some arrangements, but my amendment would restore a Chicago supplemental airport to the National Plan for Integrated Airport Systems around the country, the so-called NPIAS list. For 10 years, Chicago had a supplemental airport on the NPIAS list. It was taken off in 1997 by the FAA. I think it is time we put the Chicago supplemental airport back on that nationwide plan for airports.”