Chicago Flights

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Chicago's Midway International Airport is O'Hare's little brother, though it is older than O'Hare. Located just 10 miles from downtown, Midway serves 17 million passengers each year.

The airport was established in 1927 as Chicago's Municipal Airport, and by 1929, it was the busiest airport in the world. In 1949, the Chicago airport was renamed Midway to honor the Battle of Midway, one of the most important battles in the Pacific theater of World War II. Six months after the Battle of Pearl Harbor, Midway resulted in Japan losing four aircraft carriers, 248 aircraft, and over 3,000 dead, a devastating blow from which the Japanese Navy was never able to recover.

Economy parking is $14 a day, daily parking is steep at about $29 a day, and hourly parking is about $2 an hour.

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was the number one busiest airport in the world before but now is upstaged by the newer and more modern hartsfield atlanta airport in atlanta. O'Hare has four passenger terminals. Terminals 1-3 handle domestic traffic (and some international departures); Terminal 5 handles all international arrivals and international departures that are not covered by Terminals 1-3. O'Hare is huge, but it's from an era before airports had much in the way of amenities, and it's been stretched beyond capacity for a while now. Although safety has never been a concern, O'Hare has one of the worst on-time records of any major airport. However, most of the world's airlines fly though O'Hare, so international travelers aren't likely to have much of a choice, other than possibly Chicago's Midway or Milwaukee's General Mitchell International Airport.

10000 West O'Hare, Chicago, IL, 60666

The airport is 18 miles (29 km) northwest of downtown Chicago.

Door-to-door shared-ride van services are available at all terminals at Chicago O'Hare. They depart from the Arrivals level of the terminals.

Shared vans cost from $20-$40 per person depending on drop off/pick up location. Companies that provide this service include:

Continental Airport Express - (888) 284-3826
Omega Airport Shuttle - (773) 734-6688
Wisconsin Coach Lines - 877 324-7767

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my all time fave airline. Now Merged with Northwest Airlines and Bith are Under the Delta Airline Chain. Delta primarily operates a hub and spoke route system with hubs in Amsterdam, Detroit, Memphis, Minneapolis/St. Paul, Atlanta, Salt Lake City and Tokyo. Delta is the world's Second largest airline in terms of domestic and international scheduled passenger miles flown and the U.S.'s second largest airline in terms of domestic passenger miles flown. In addition to operating one of the largest domestic route networks in the U.S., Delta carries more passengers across the Pacific Ocean than any other U.S. carrier hence it is a favorite of people like me for it's frequent transpacific flights and the easy accruage of air mileage in its delta skymiles. After the United-Continental merger is complete Delta will become the world's second largest airline in terms of passenger traffic. Delta operates an extensive domestic and international network, spanning North America, South America, Europe, Asia, Africa, the Middle East, the Caribbean and Australia. Delta and the Delta Connection carriers fly to 367 destinations in 66 countries (excluding codeshare), across six continents.Delta operates the world's largest hub at Hartsfield-Jackson Atlanta International Airport. Delta Air Lines is a founding member of the SkyTeam alliance.

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I found out that O'Hare provides cots, pillows and blankets to overnight passengers staying at the airport from 9pm to 4am. Go to Terminal 3 and find the lobby near gate K1. I think it's really thoughtful and certainly beats squeezing yourself into a couple of seats.

Just note that they are very efficient about waking you up at 4.

O'Hare is my home airport, so I'm really not stranded there myself. However, as I travel around to many other airports I have realized one way O'Hare is lacking. They really don't have much shopping or other things to do. There are some airports like Minneapolis St Paul that have a large shopping area with restaurants and stores, etc. O'hare has a few sprinkled stores here and there, but nothing really concentrated. So, just a tip, if you know you're going to have a layover, plan on bringing something to do.

We got this great tip from www.skinnyguide.com. Most people immediately consider O'Hare, and not Midway. Midway often offers cheaper flights, and is often a much faster/closer trip into the downtown area (by cab or by train). You can also ask your cab driver to take you in via Lake Shore Drive, maybe only 5 minutes longer (maybe), but a much more scenic view, along the Lake.

I actually have the choice of either of Chicago's airports when I leave town either on pleasure or business. I can either leave my house and go a little north and farther east to Midway or go a lot farther north but not so far east to O'Hare. Either way both airports are about 35 minutes from where I live (that's without traffic).

Most of the time from O'Hare I am going through Terminal 3 which is shown in the picture. This is the main terminal for American Airlines which gets most of my business as it is the one the company I work for recommends (which means use unless you have no other option).

If anybody has come into Chicago from international locations they have flown through O'Hare and even most domestic travelers at one point or another have at least stopped to change planes at O'Hare on there way to other destinations.

There are enough sit down restaurants and snack bars along with the typical book stores and novelty stores here. One thing I have noticed over the years of traveling is that there is really a lack of retail outlets as compared to some of the other newer airports. Not a bad thing for me as I rarely buy anything at an airport, but if you need a diversion for a long wait at least you could window shop.

Updated 3/12/09

Midway Airport, the world's busiest airport in the 1930s, is now Chicago's 2nd busiest airport, O'Hare being the busiest and handling most of the international flights. The name was changed from the Chicago Municipal Airport to Midway in 1949 in honor of the Battle of Midway.

Flights arriving here are primarily domestic, smaller, no frill airlines like Southwest, ATA, AirTran, etc. although some international flights do go through Midway.

The airport is easier to navigate than O' Hare and transportation to Chicago via the CTA Orange line (el) is within walking distance of the terminals.

Midway is slightly closer to downtown than O' Hare, the transit website estimates a trip of 30 minutes by el compared with 40 for O' Hare.

If you haven't been through Midway in awhile, Midway underwent a major renovation of it's terminals and parking facilities a few years ago and is a much nicer airport to travel through. There's a pretty good food court including Greek, sandwiches, pizza and recently I grabbed a corned beef sandwich from Manny's before boarding a flight.

As of 3/12/09 If you are parking and flying, Midway has several economy lots off 55th Street for $14 per day (have to take a shuttle bus to the terminal) or if you go to 59th just east of Cicero there's a $12 lot that you can walk from but they only take cash (and most times they "forget" to give you change!). Parking in the garage next to the terminal is $28 per day. Check the website below for updated rates.