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O'Hare Gates

denno
Adventurer B

The "Flying Southwest, Airport Information" link shows Southwest's gates at O'Hare as Terminal 5, gates 14-16.  O'Hare's flight departure screen for Southwest shows it to be using gates 30-33.  O'Hare's Terminal 5 map shows gates only going up to 21.  Does anyone know which gates at ORD T5  Southwest truly uses and why these three information contradictions? 

16 REPLIES 16

Re: O'Hare Gates

TheMiddleSeat
Aviator A

I'm not the Chicago expert that @chgoflyer and @DancingDavidE are, but according to my FlightView app, Southwest departures today are going out of Term 5, gates M30-M33.  That does differ from what the Southwest website says.  The M30 gates are on the ORD terminal map on the ORD website, at the far end of the M concourse.

 

--TheMiddleSeat

Re: O'Hare Gates

dfwskier
Aviator A

Southwest's  O'Hare gates seem to be a moving target.

 

4-5 months ago SW departed from Terminal 5 M1-M3.

 

@  2 months ago it was M-14 to M-16

 

I arrived at M-30 on November 15.

 

So SW has moved the entire length of the concourse since it arrived at O'Hare

 

Put on your walking shoes. It is a long walk to M-30.

Re: O'Hare Gates

floridaguy
Aviator C

I don't believe that Southwest makes the choices of gate locations, the airport authority makes decisions regarding carriers and their location.

 

An airport authority can have politics like a small city.  There are any number of reasons that the Southwest terminals get moved around.  

Re: O'Hare Gates

denno
Adventurer B

Sorry Floridaguy, but I wasn’t asking why the gates get moved or for guesswork. I was simply asking which gates are currently used.  Thanks to those who provided current information.

Re: O'Hare Gates

floridaguy
Aviator C

My reply was for another board contributor on this thread.

Re: O'Hare Gates

DancingDavidE
Aviator A

@denno wrote:

The "Flying Southwest, Airport Information" link shows Southwest's gates at O'Hare as Terminal 5, gates 14-16.  O'Hare's flight departure screen for Southwest shows it to be using gates 30-33.  O'Hare's Terminal 5 map shows gates only going up to 21.  Does anyone know which gates at ORD T5  Southwest truly uses and why these three information contradictions? 


Southwest had previously been using the far end of the existing terminal - however Delta recently moved to T5 and wanted 6-7 gates all together, and had built a lounge, so they took over the M1 to M7 gates permanently. 

 

At the same time this shuffle happened, the expansion of T5 opened with the new M30-M33 gates which Southwest is occupying presently. I don't have any inside knowledge if the gates will be permanent to Southwest or not but as near as I could tell the variable occupancy international + Frontier gates were in the M8 to M20's in the existing terminal and Southwest was in the new expansion, and there were a few more unused gates in the new section as well. 

 

The new section is a hike, and there aren't any concessions installed yet but I'm looking forward to one of my favorite coffee places, among others that will show up. The new space has a very high ceiling, modern lighting design, it's great. I hope Southwest gets to keep those gates.

 

I'll see if I can post some photos later. It's a gorgeous area. 

 

 

Home airport MDW, frequent visitor to MCO to see the mouse.

Re: O'Hare Gates

DancingDavidE
Aviator A

@DancingDavidE wrote:

@denno wrote:

The "Flying Southwest, Airport Information" link shows Southwest's gates at O'Hare as Terminal 5, gates 14-16.  O'Hare's flight departure screen for Southwest shows it to be using gates 30-33.  O'Hare's Terminal 5 map shows gates only going up to 21.  Does anyone know which gates at ORD T5  Southwest truly uses and why these three information contradictions? 


Southwest had previously been using the far end of the existing terminal - however Delta recently moved to T5 and wanted 6-7 gates all together, and had built a lounge, so they took over the M1 to M7 gates permanently. 

 

At the same time this shuffle happened, the expansion of T5 opened with the new M30-M33 gates which Southwest is occupying presently. I don't have any inside knowledge if the gates will be permanent to Southwest or not but as near as I could tell the variable occupancy international + Frontier gates were in the M8 to M20's in the existing terminal and Southwest was in the new expansion, and there were a few more unused gates in the new section as well. 

 

The new section is a hike, and there aren't any concessions installed yet but I'm looking forward to one of my favorite coffee places, among others that will show up. The new space has a very high ceiling, modern lighting design, it's great. I hope Southwest gets to keep those gates.

 

I'll see if I can post some photos later. It's a gorgeous area. 

 

 


The direct answer to y our question @denno  is that the M30 section just opened so the physical arrangements are ahead of the online description. I believe M30-M33 will remain for the near-term while Terminal 2 is redeveloped. Then the international flights will depart from that new terminal and all of Terminal 5 will be available for domestic flights, but that's years from now.

 

 

Home airport MDW, frequent visitor to MCO to see the mouse.

Re: O'Hare Gates

denno
Adventurer B

@DancingDavidE  Thanks for an excellent post about the ORD gate situation.  The bigger problem I intended to address initially is why Southwest’s airport information link is so outdated. A more egregious example is for DEN.  Southwest’s 16 new C concourse gates were opened in May with much celebration on the Southwest media link, but now, 6 months later, they still don’t show on the airport information link.  This makes me wonder how many other cities’ listings are not current either. Somebody is not monitoring this information.

Re: O'Hare Gates

TheMiddleSeat
Aviator A

@denno you could send a note to Southwest suggesting they update it. Use the contact us link at the bottom of this page and send a message.

 

--TheMiddleSeat