How a Third Airport Would Boost the Chicago Economy

On Chicago’s South Side and in the south suburbs, there are 60 people for every job available. On the north side and in the northwest suburbs, the ratio is three to one, U.S. Rep. Jesse Jackson Jr. said November 12 at the DuSable Business Conference.

The proposed South Suburban Airport represents the best chance the area has to recover from significant economic depression, Jackson told a crowd of alumni and students who convened at the Hyde Park Center for the event, which was cohosted by the student-led African American MBA Association and the Hispanic American Business Student Association.

The 2nd Congressional District has been unable to make the transition from industrial-based economy to service-based economy. Megachurches such as Rev. James Meeks’s Salem Baptist Church with 115 employees are no substitute for the economic opportunities represented by State Street, Michigan Avenue, Navy Pier, or McCormick Place, Jackson said.

“The great service-based economy of Chicago is fueled by the more than 65 million people who pass through [O’Hare] every year,” the congressman said. The best way for Jackson’s south side constituents to land the jobs and economic advantage of a service-based economy is to build a third airport near Peotone to ease the area’s airport capacity constraints.

The public-private plan Jackson supports envisions the South Suburban Airport as a low-cost carrier hub. It would begin with one runway and five gates. The congressman suggested that by cutting the per passenger emplanement costs charged to low-cost airlines ($13.50 at O’Hare or $11.50 at Midway), the area around the proposed Abraham Lincoln National Airport could become the next Dulles Airport Technology Corridor, which over the past 20 years has gained 575,000 jobs. Establishing the first low-cost carrier hub in the history of the United States here in this region would expand the economy for the south side and south suburbs “and provide unlimited growth and economic opportunity for our community well into the future,” Jackson said. “That’s the goal.”

—Jenn Q. Goddu