Academic

Leaving Portland for Chicago because of . . . air travel?

By Tung Yin

A local steel company, Evraz Inc., is moving its headquarters from Portland to Chicago because of the lack of adequate air travel from here to Canadian cities where many of its mills are located.

Yes, Portland's air travel options are less than you would expect given the size of the metropolitan area, which also means that prices are higher than you might expect.

But moving to Chicago?!?  That would mean using O'Hare International Airport all the time!

During my seven years in Iowa, I came to loathe O'Hare.  I can understand that air travel gets totally messed up if there's a foot of snow on the ground.  But I had problems with delayed or even cancelled flights even in reasonably good weather.  It's ridiculous to sit on the tarmac for two hours when the sky is blue and the outside temperature mild, but that's happened to me.  I've had flights from Chicago to Iowa City cancelled with the next available flight being so much later (like a day or even two) that it was much preferable to rent a car and drive the 220 miles.

I'm sure in the long run, the move makes sense for these steel execs.  Still, I can't help but laugh at the idea of moving to Chicago because of air travel.

Full post as published by The Yin Blog on January 26, 2011 (boomark / email).