Chicago Department of Aviation history

In 1946, the city purchased over a thousand acres of land northwest of the city.

In 1949, the Municipal Airport was renamed Midway Airport to commemorate the famous battle in the Pacific.

After Burke's death in 1956, Mayor Richard J. Daley selected C. F. Murphy Associates to continue the airport development.

By 1961, it was the second busiest airport in the US, with 9.62 million passengers that year (New York Idlewind / JFK was the busiest, with 10.15 million passengers).

These were aligned at several different orientations to help with operations in varying wind conditions. It soon grew with seven runways occupying a huge area, completed by 1971.

When the federal government passed the Airline Deregulation Act of 1978, completing the transformation of flight into mass, long-haul transit, the resulting low, and sometimes idiosyncratic, fare structure greatly increased the number of travelers.

In 1983 Helmut Jahn of Murphy/Jahn designed a new terminal, meeting standards jointly set by the tenant (United Airlines) and the city Department of Aviation.

A major new international terminal (now Terminal 5) was added in 1993.

In 1997, approximately 80 million passengers and 1.5 million tons of cargo and mail flew through O'Hare or Midway.

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