Midway AirportThe advantage of traveling through Midway is that it is much closer to the city. It can take 15 to 25 minutes from Midway to downtown, as the distance is shorter and the traffic surrounding this airport is much lighter.
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Both O'Hare and Midway are within easy reach of downtown Chicago. The Chicago Transit Authority (CTA) Blue Line 'L' Train, which runs 24/7, connects directly to O'Hare. The CTA Orange Line 'L' Train connects directly to Midway. See maps and fares.
Chicago O'Hare International Airport (IATA: ORD, ICAO: KORD, FAA LID: ORD), sometimes referred to as Chicago O'Hare, or simply O'Hare, is the main international airport serving Chicago, Illinois, located on the city's Northwest Side, approximately 17 miles (27 km) northwest of the Loop business district.
Compared to O'Hare, Midway is a much smaller international airport, and it only carries a few airlines. Midway generally operates Southwest Airlines flights and it is much smaller and less busy than O'Hare. The advantage of traveling through Midway is that it is much closer to the city.
During the first four months of 2023, Midway International Airport welcomed an average of 1.6 million passengers per month, putting the airport at 103% of passenger volume compared to the same period in 2019, the Chicago Department of Aviation (CDA) reported in statistics posted online this month.
Midway Is Convenient for Domestic TravelWhile still a busy airport by any standard, Midway is much less busy than O'Hare (it doesn't even crack the top 50 internationally). It's closer to downtown, and limo service can get you from the Loop to Midway in just over 20 minutes (without traffic, of course).
Southwest is in fact Chicago's third largest airline, measured by scheduled seats in 2022. What are Chicago's other busiest airlines? United, which is headquartered in the Windy City, ranks first thanks to its large hub operation at O'Hare. American, which operates a competing hub at O'Hare, ranks second.
United is the largest airline here by counting the number of departures with around 2911 scheduled take-offs every week. The second largest operator from Chicago Ohare International is American Airlines. Airbus A380 is the largest aircraft operating here among other big planes such as the Boeing 747 and the Boeing 777.
In fact, American outranked United on most metrics in our 2023 Best-Of Awards analysis of major domestic carriers. But United has a few things going for it, including its credit card perks, more legroom in economy plus and the luxurious Polaris class.
O'Hare International Airport is the largest airport in Chicago. It has 4 terminals and offers roughly 568 daily non-stop flights to 154 U.S. cities and 45 daily non-stop flights to international destinations in Asia, Europe, North America, and South America.
According to a recent USAToday article, the average o'hare airport security wait times are around 15 minutes. The best Chicago ohare TSA wait times occur on Saturday 10-11pm. The worst Chicago TSA wait times are on Tuesday from 4-5pm, where you could wait up to 33 minutes.
General Departure Delays: Traffic is experiencing gate hold and taxi delays lasting 15 minutes or less. General Arrival Delays: Arrival traffic is experiencing airborne delays of 15 minutes or less.