Why Does flychicago.com Stink?

I like to think of Chicago as a world-class city. We've got a gorgeous lakefront, 849 Starbucks locations, wonderful neighborhoods, amazing culinary delights, and... uh... flychicago.com.

I wouldn't think much about it except that it's the official site for O'Hare and Midway Airports and, for a lot of folks, it'll be their first impression of Chicago. I think the current site is so 1997-ish that it would give me pause about the city.

Some nice touches: the WiFi information is presented in PDF for no real reason; the entire list of "important announcements" is in bold (I guess they're all really important!); the front page's menus don't work correctly in Safari; and it all feels like it was someone's final project for a Web Design 101 class. ("Make the pictures spin!")

Worse is that there are a lot better airport sites out there. While it's an entirely different class of airport, the one for Dane County, Wisconsin pretty much beats the pants off of Chicago's. Isn't that sad?

Well, at least we've got money for the upcoming Olympics.