![Meigs Field was the best way to fly into Chicago for GA pilots—before it was destroyed in March 2003. [Courtesy Friends of Meigs Field]](https://www.flyingmag.com/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2021/10/meigs-field.jpg)
It takes years to build an airport, at least 30 days to get permission from the FAA to legally shut it down—a situation that’s unlikely as the agency is in the business of protecting aviation—and just a few hours to destroy it. These are lessons learned on March 30, 2003, when the aviation world woke up to learn that Merrill C. Meigs Field (formerly KCGX) in Chicago had been destroyed overnight.
It wasn’t an act of nature. It was done on order of Chicago Mayor Richard Daley, who instructed heavy equipment operators to go to the airport under the cover of darkness and carve a series of X-shaped ditches across the 3,900-by-150-foot runway, rendering it useless.
The airport was built shortly after World War II on Northerly Island, a human-made peninsula minutes from downtown Chicago. In 1952, the airport was named Meigs Field after Merrill C. Meigs, the publisher of the Chicago Herald and Examiner and an aviation enthusiast. The airport’s 75 acres were leased from the Chicago Parks District.
The airport’s location made it popular with business travelers, medical flights, and recreational pilots. Aviation enthusiasts from outside the Chicago area were introduced to it as the default airport in no fewer than 12 versions of Microsoft Flight Simulator.
Daley was not the first Chicago mayor who wanted to close the airport. In the 1980s Jane Byrne suggested closing it and converting the land into a park. This raised a great outcry among local pilots, aviation advocacy groups, and businesses that appreciated the convenience of an airport so close to downtown.
In addition, the FAA admonished the city that the airport had received agency grants, and each one carries an assurance that the facility remains open a set amount of time (usually 25 years) so that the grants can be amortized. The city had most recently accepted a grant in 1976, so the soonest the airport could legally close would have been 2001.
Byrne dropped the idea, only to have it picked up again by Daley in 1994.
![Northerly Island Park replaced the space where Meigs Field had been in operation since 1947 [Photo: Lee Hogan]](https://www.flyingmag.com/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2021/10/httpswww.flyingmag.comsitesflyingmag.comfilesimages201902northerly_island.jpg)
Again the FAA stated that the airport had accepted federal grants that would keep the facility open.
In fall 1996, Daley allegedly instructed the city parks department not to renew the airport’s lease and ordered Xs be painted on the runway to signify its closure. In a matter of weeks, pressure from the state legislature and the FAA resulted in the reopening of the airport with the understanding that it would remain open until at least 2026. The painted Xs were removed, and the airport resumed operations.
The 2003 midnight closure was a surprise to many people—including the owner of the FBO and the 16 pilots who kept their airplanes at the still-active airport. It was also a surprise to air traffic control (ATC). A control tower operator heard about the destruction on the radio as he drove to work. Approach control learned of it when a pilot in the air asked to divert to another airport, telling the controller the runway had been destroyed. A few days later the 16 airplanes were permitted to use the taxiway as a runway to depart.
At first Daley defended his actions, claiming the destruction was done “due to safety concerns,” citing a potential terrorist attack similar to 9/11. This story was quickly discounted when the U.S. Department of Homeland Security stated that no threats had been made against Chicago.
Daley then changed his story, saying the abrupt closure was done as a means to prevent lengthy and costly litigation that was likely to come as aviation groups sought to keep the airport open. For several months, pilot organizations and aviation groups lobbied unsuccessfully for the repair of the runway and the reopening of Meigs Field.
FAA Levies a Fine
In 2005, the FAA fined Chicago for closing an airport with a charted instrument approach without giving the required 30-day notice. At the time, the maximum fine the agency could levy by law was $1,100 per day. The total of the fine was $33,000, which critics noted was “pocket change” to the municipality. The city appealed the penalty.
In response to this, the Meigs Legacy Provision was passed as part of the FAA reauthorization bill. It increased the maximum fine per day from $1,100 to $10,000 per day for illegal airport closures.
In September 2006, the city of Chicago dropped all legal appeals and agreed to pay the fine of $33,000 and repay the FAA for the $1 million of FAA Airport Improvement Program funds that were used to demolish the airport and build Northerly Island Park.
Aftermath
The only good to come out of the loss of Meigs Field is that its illegal closure served as a wake-up call to other endangered airports. If you have the money and can get the machines and the people to run them, the airport can be destroyed—no matter what assurances are in place.
Three airports in California come to mind: Reid-Hillview (KRHV) in San Jose, Whiteman (KWHP) in Pomona, and Santa Monica (KSMO).
The threatened airports often have common characteristics: They were built in the 1930s or ’40s, often carved out of agricultural fields several miles from the center of the nearest city or town.
Today they are often surrounded by industrial and residential development. And it’s often the homeowners who complain the loudest about airport noise and safety, despite the fact they knew the airport was there when they bought their homes.
Other common arguments are the (usually false) accusations that the taxpayers are paying for the playground of rich pilots. Many airports are self-sustaining and a great many pilots who utilize smaller airports are definitely not rich.
How It Begins
The closure of an airport usually begins with the airport sponsor conducting an alternative land use study. Developers promise parks and “affordable housing” in areas that often sorely need it.
Turning lakefront property into a park—such as what happened at Meigs Field—is being considered for Burke Front Airport (KBKL) in Cleveland, although the city is obligated to the FAA to keep the airport open until 2030 because of the acceptance of federal airport improvement grants. The airport is used by business travelers and as a reliever for Cleveland Hopkins International Airport (KCLE).
