Chicago O'Hare Intl (KORD)

Chicago O'Hare International works more aircraft movements than any other airport in the world, and its eight runways are more than any other public-use airport in the United States. It is the most complex field in VectorHeavy. The O'Hare Modernization Program rebuilt the airfield into six parallel east-west runways in two banks, a north airfield and a south airfield, and left two northeast-southwest diagonals standing. Ten thousand-plus feet of pavement runs two deep on each side, and 10L/28R is thirteen thousand.

O'Hare is the only field here where two carriers both run a mega-hub, so the radio is United and American back to back all shift, with Envoy, SkyWest and Brickyard carrying the regional feed underneath and a real international bank on top. West flow is the prevailing configuration: it lands 28C, 27C and 27R while departing 28R, 27L and the 22L diagonal, and east flow lands 10C, 9L and 10R while departing 10L and 9R. Those are the FAA's own published configurations, and the arrival runways are deliberately not the reciprocals of the departure runways, because the arrival and departure roles swap between the two airfields when the flow turns. There are no published departure procedures here at all: the current FAA cycle codes eleven arrivals for O'Hare and not one SID, so every departure leaves on a heading you assign and works.

This is the Heavy tier at its top: three simultaneous arrival streams while three more runways push departures out underneath them. Lake Michigan sits off your eastern edge. Come here when Atlanta stops feeling busy.

Runway layout