Pricing congestion for arriving flights at Chicago O'Hare Airport

This paper estimates congestion fees for arriving flights at Chicago O'Hare Airport. The analysis finds that the level of congestion is only about a fifth of the magnitude of the congestion associated with departing flights. Congestion is much worse in poor weather conditions, and mitigating these weather delays is a primary objective of the current program to reconfigure the airfield. The analysis finds that the non-linearities inherent in models of congestion mean that even a very modest change in flight patterns reduces delays and congestion fees quite considerably.