O Hare International Airport

In a small room above the crowds of Terminal 2, the Rev. Michael G. Zaniolo prepared to deliver his airport version of Mass. In other churches it can take an hour or more. But as an American Airlines pilot strode into the chapel with his luggage, Zaniolo was ready to deliver it a bit quicker -- 30 minutes or less. His homily, a thoughtful sermon with messages of hope, was whittled to 1 minute, 46 seconds. "People have to rock and roll," said Zaniolo, a 50-year-old Catholic priest.

The Transportation Department granted six small airlines takeoff and landing slots at Chicago's O'Hare and New York's LaGuardia airports. America West Airlines was given five exemptions--each exemption allows the carrier one arrival or departure--at O'Hare, which the airline plans to use to boost the number of daily Chicago-Phoenix round trips to five. Atlantic Coast Airlines and Trans States Airlines each received 16 O'Hare exemptions, and Simmons Airlines got 16 temporary exemptions there.

Heavy fog forced cancellation or delays of hundreds of airline flights Thursday in the Midwest and Northeast, stranding travelers and leading to a "big old slumber party" at Chicago's O'Hare International Airport. About 30% of O'Hare's average 200 arrivals and departures each hour were canceled and all flight operations were suspended at the smaller Midway Airport, Chicago Aviation Department spokeswoman Lisa Howard said.

With airports across the country recovering from a blast of snow and ice storms, unlucky holiday travelers stranded for a second night prepared to wake up Christmas morning at the nation's second-busiest airport. Tommy and Siobhan Costello of Ireland arrived Tuesday at O'Hare International Airport en route to their honeymoon in San Diego. About 500 flights were canceled, and weather disruptions meant the earliest flight out they could get was Thursday.

O'Hare International Airport in Chicago was the nation's busiest in terms of air traffic during the first half of 2006, surpassing Atlanta's airport, according to the Federal Aviation Administration. Hartsfield-Jackson Atlanta International Airport was No. 2 for the number of flights from Jan. 1 through June 30, the FAA said. In third place was Dallas/Fort Worth International Airport. O'Hare registered 477,001 flights, down 1.

The Federal Aviation Administration said Thursday that it supported Chicago's $15-billion master plan to expand O'Hare International Airport in an effort to reduce some of the nation's worst flight delays. In its environmental impact report, the agency said it had considered a number of proposals, including ones that called for adding runways, modifying existing ones, or leaving O'Hare alone and instead spending the money on building a third airport in the region.

A $15-billion expansion of Chicago's O'Hare Airport was halted by an appeals court hours after it received the go-ahead from the Federal Aviation Administration. The U.S. Court of Appeals in Washington granted an emergency request filed by opponents who argued that the project would desecrate a cemetery with 1,300 tombs dating to the 1800s.

The plan to expand O'Hare International Airport will cost about $14.8 billion, twice the amount city officials cited when they announced the project in 2001. The new estimate was in a detailed plan submitted Friday to the Federal Aviation Administration. The agency will use the documents to decide whether the project should get federal funding. The expansion would create and reconfigure runways to cut flight delays and increase the airport's flight capacity, city officials have said.

An electrical explosion at O'Hare International Airport in Chicago knocked out power to two terminals, delaying flights and injuring two workers who had been upgrading the electrical system, officials said. Chicago Aviation Commissioner John Roberson said the outage did not affect the air traffic control towers, but flights were delayed because many security checkpoints lost electricity, forcing workers to manually screen passengers and baggage.

Transportation Secretary Norman Y. Mineta issued an ultimatum to the nation's major airlines Wednesday, telling them to get flights running on time at the nation's busiest airport or his agency would intervene.