As a major hub for both Envoy and American, Chicago O’Hare International Airport (ORD) is home to over 3,300 Envoy employees who work in every avenue of aviation – from aircraft maintenance to flight operations, above- and below-the-wing services and much more – everyone works together 24/7 to oversee the success of hundreds of flights a day.
At the end of January, lucky members from both the National Gay Pilots Association (NGPA) and the Professional Asian Pilots Association (PAPA) met at ORD to get an up-close look at the airport’s bustling operation with Envoy leaders.
Upon arrival, attendees were greeted by Envoy First Officer and NGPA Windy City Flyers Chapter President Dan Hopkins as well as members of the Envoy ORD Operations leadership team, provided with some safety gear, and escorted through to the secure side of Terminal 3 where the tour kicked off.
“I’m currently working on my ratings and I hope to fly for Envoy one day soon,” said one attendee during the event. “There are so many moving pieces here, and everyone seems to know their exact role, so it’s really cool to get this behind-the-scenes look at the airport.”
During the event, attendees saw every level of the airport – from below the terminal, where baggage operations between Envoy and American are sorted and sent, all the way up to two of the different operations control towers, where things like gate assignments and traffic control on the ramp are monitored and maintained.
“I spend a lot of time flying, so when I hear ‘tower’ I really only think of Air Traffic Control (ATC) towers,” said another attendee during the event. “It never crossed my mind until this tour that there’s also a need for the ground operations teams to have those same kinds of visuals to keep things running smoothly before a plane even approaches a runway.”
In the past year since Envoy hosted the first ORD operations tour for these organizations, the scope of our work has grown, and this year’s attendees scored some first looks at what’s new. A couple of changes are American’s new Landline service, which connects ORD travelers to South Bend, Indiana (SBN) and Rockford, Illinois (RFD) via a luxury coach. And that’s not all – attendees on this year’s tour got to see a preview of Envoy’s “virtual tower” that will be operational soon. Arguably the most exciting new thing tour attendees got to see was one of our brand-new aircraft, which joined our fleet fresh from the factory at the beginning of the year and has been in service for less than a month.
Everyone had the chance to board our newest aircraft, take in that new plane smell and ask First Officer Hopkins any question they could think of regarding his experience both as a student pilot and now as a First Officer for Envoy.
After maxing out Apple Watch step counts throughout Terminal 3, tour attendees went upstairs to an airport conference room to finish their day with some Chicago pizza from a local favorite. All attendees also received a small bag of Envoy branded items to commemorate their tour.
A special thank you to al of our attendees for their participation, and to our Envoy ORD Operations team for leading such an exciting tour – we’re already looking forward to the next one!
