Chicago Mayor Brandon Johnson joined American Airlines executives and U.S. Senator Dick Durbin on Thursday to cut the ribbon on two newly renovated gates, K1 and L2A, inside O'Hare International Airport's Terminal 3, alongside a fresh set of baggage claim carousels numbered 30 through 33. The reopening marks a visible milestone in the $300 million ElevateT3 modernization project, which is remaking passenger circulation, security screening, baggage operations, restrooms, gate areas and building systems throughout the terminal without shutting it down.
According to CBS Chicago, the event brought together city, federal and airline officials to mark progress on a terminal that serves as American Airlines' Chicago hub, where the carrier operates more than 500 daily departures to more than 160 destinations worldwide, per the airline's own figures cited in that report. The station also notes that O'Hare remains Chicago's busiest airport, and that ElevateT3 is designed to keep Terminal 3 open and fully operational throughout the multi-year construction process.
A Terminal Overdue for an Overhaul
Terminal 3 first opened in 1962 and last saw a comprehensive renovation back in the 1980s, meaning ElevateT3 is its first major multi-component modernization in roughly four decades, according to ENR. The 85-gate terminal serves as the hub for American Airlines and its Oneworld alliance partners, and construction is being managed by COT3, a joint venture of Clark Construction Group and W.E. O'Neil Construction Co. acting as Construction Manager At-Risk, with overall completion anticipated for summer 2027, the trade publication reports.
The project is funded in part by $90 million in federal grants awarded under the Bipartisan Infrastructure Law, consisting of a $50 million grant in 2023 and a $40 million grant in 2024 from the Federal Aviation Administration, as detailed by Urbanize Chicago. Those two awards represent some of the largest single grants issued under the FAA's Airport Terminal Program, the outlet notes.
What ElevateT3 Is Actually Building
Beyond the reopened gates and carousels, the project's scope includes consolidating two existing TSA screening checkpoints into a single enlarged security area outfitted with modern screening technology, according to the City of Chicago. The same city release describes plans to triple the width of the central passenger passageway linking Concourse K and Concourse L, paired with expanded holdrooms at Gates K1 and L2A — the very gates that reopened Thursday.
The overhaul also carries a commercial dimension: ElevateT3 will add 10,000 square feet of new concessions and amenities plus an American Airlines Admirals Club lounge, according to CBS Chicago's report on the ribbon-cutting. Those new retail and dining spaces fit into a larger citywide push — Hoodline previously reported that the city's ORDerUp concessions initiative, launched by the Chicago Department of Aviation in February, issued a major RFP to re-tenant commercial spaces across Terminals 1 and 3.
Part of a Much Bigger Airport Bet
ElevateT3 is only one piece of Chicago's sweeping O'Hare 21, or ORDNext, capital program, which broke ground on the $1.3 billion Concourse D project in August 2025 to add 19 new gates — the first new concourse built at O'Hare in more than 30 years, according to the City of Chicago. That expansion has not come without friction: in April 2024, hub carriers American Airlines and United Airlines raised concerns over $2 billion in post-pandemic cost overruns across the broader $8.5 billion O'Hare overhaul, prompting negotiations over project sequencing and budget caps, as Bloomberg reported at the time. City officials later capped the Concourse D budget at $1.455 billion to give carriers financial certainty.
Terminal 3's growing footprint has already drawn new international traffic. British Airways shifted its O'Hare departure operations from Terminal 5 to Terminal 3's Gate K19 in April 2024, co-locating with Oneworld partner American Airlines, though its arriving passengers still land at Terminal 5 due to customs processing requirements, Hoodline reported in coverage of that shift. More recently, American Airlines announced in July that it will resume daily nonstop Boeing 787-9 flights between Terminal 3 and Tokyo Narita Airport starting in March 2027, ending a seven-year hiatus on the route and connecting O'Hare travelers to Japan Airlines' broader Asian network.
