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CHICAGO MIDWAY (MDW) Hotel and Parking Package at Special Discounted Rates
CHICAGO MIDWAY PARK AND FLY HOTELS AND PARKING PACKAGE (MDW)
Chicago Midway Airport
Chicago Midway Airport (MDW) is Illinois’s second busiest airport, and
serves passengers flying to destinations across North America and beyond.
Situated just ten miles south-west of downtown Chicago, Midway Airport can
easily be reached in less than 30 minutes using the Chicago Transit
Authority (CTA) Orange Line buses, regional buses, or downtown and suburban
shuttles. Get more information on transportation to and from Chicago Midway
airport
Chicago Midway Airport is also easily accessible by car, with extensive
short- and long-term parking available, and the Midway Airport parking
garage offering direct access to the airport’s terminal building.
Chicago Midway Airport has three concourses, serving major airlines such as
Delta, Continental, and Southwest. The airport provides award-winning and
comprehensive facilities and services, including shops and restaurants to
cater for all needs. Facilities and services for disabled travelers and for
treating medical emergencies are also available.
Chicago Midway World Airport Guide provides you with access to a complete
selection of Chicago Midway airport hotels. Utilize the discounts offered
directly from the hotel, with the assurance of secure booking. Extra
services include airport car rental, airport car parking, and flights to and
from Chicago Midway Airport.
A shuttle bus connects Midway Airport with Chicago’s O’Hare Airport hourly
between 7:00 am to 10:00 pm
Chicago Midway International Airport (MDW, KMDW, MDW), also known simply as
Midway Airport or Midway, is an airport in Chicago, Illinois, United States,
located on the city's southwest side, eight miles (13 km) from Chicago's
Loop. The airport's current IATA code MDW has been in use since it was
implemented in 1949 when Chicago Municipal Airport was renamed Chicago
Midway Airport,[3] although the airline schedule books continued to call it
CHI until airline flights began at O'Hare. It is bordered by 55th Street,
Cicero Avenue (terminal entrance), 63rd Street, and Central Avenue. The
airport's northern half is within the Garfield Ridge community area, and the
southern half is within the Clearing community area. The airport is managed
by the Chicago Airport System, which also oversees operations at O'Hare
International Airport and Gary/Chicago International Airport.[4] The airport
is named after the Battle of Midway from World War II.
Midway is dominated by low-cost carrier Southwest Airlines. AirTran Airways
and Delta Air Lines are the airport's other major operators. Both the
Stevenson Expressway and Chicago Transit Authority's Orange Line provide
passengers access to downtown Chicago. Midway Airport is the second largest
passenger airport in the Chicago metropolitan area, as well as the state of
Illinois, after Chicago O'Hare International Airport.[5]
Today, Midway Airport serves as a focus city for Dallas-based Southwest
Airlines[6] As of 2011 Midway is Southwest's largest focus city.[7] For over
16 years, Chicago Midway International Airport had been the main hub for
Indianapolis-based ATA Airlines (ATA), but that service was reduced to four
destinations in November 2007, and was scheduled to end by June 7,
2008[8][9] before the airline filed for bankruptcy in April 2008,
immediately discontinuing all flights.[10][11]
Early history (1923–1962)
Originally named Chicago Air Park,[12] Midway Airport was built on a
320-acre (1.3 km2) plot in 1923 and consisted of a single cinder runway that
primarily served airmail services. The site was selected following the
destruction of the Wingfoot Air Express when it crashed into the Illinois
Trust and Savings Building, killing thirteen people, and the city decided to
close the Grant Park air strip. In 1926, the Chicago City Council leased the
land for commercial purposes from the Chicago Board of Education at a rate
of $1560 per year.[12] On December 12, 1927, Midway was dedicated as Chicago
Municipal Airport by Chicago Mayor William H. Thompson,[3] and became known
as "Munie" to many early pilots. The unique one-square-mile footprint of
Midway Airport is due to its connection to the Chicago Board of Education.
Under the Land Ordinance of 1785, land was divided into townships. Each
township included a one-square-mile (640 acre) section devoted to education.
In most instances, one-room school houses were located on this land, the
balance of which was farmed to provide funds for the operation of the
school. As township school districts consolidated, much of this excess land
was typically sold for other purposes. The Chicago Board of Education
continued to own the Midway Airport section and rent it to the City of
Chicago for airport operations until 1982, when an education funding crisis
forced the Board of Education to sell the land to the City of Chicago for
$16 million.[13]
Chicago Midway Airport (formerly Chicago Municipal Airport) as it looked in
1927
During its first full year of operation in 1928, the airfield was home to
twelve hangars and four runways, lit for night operations.[13] Air traffic
control was handled by flagmen,[13] who would be positioned at the end of
the runways; they were responsible for controlling 14,498 flight operations
carrying 41,660 passengers that year.[3] The official observation site for
Chicago's weather records was also moved to Midway during that year from the
downtown area and would remain there until it was moved again, this time to
O'Hare, in 1980.
The greater Chicago area, featuring Chicago Midway and O'Hare International
Airports
The former Main Terminal entrance of
Chicago Midway Airport before the
airport's recent expansion project
A new passenger terminal and administration building, funded by a bond
issue, was dedicated in 1931[13] by Chicago mayor Anton Cermak, and in the
following year Midway Airport earned the title of "World's Busiest" with
over 100,846 passengers riding on 60,947 flights.[3] During some years
thereafter New York's airport (Newark, then LaGuardia) was the busiest
airline airport in the United States, but Midway passed LaGuardia in the
early 1950s and retained the title until O'Hare claimed it in 1961.[13]
In 1941, Midway Airport joined World War II efforts because of its long
runways and mid-continent position.[3] The war years proved to be a boon for
Midway, which saw new construction funded in part by $1 million in federal
monies from the Works Progress Administration, and work on additional
runways moved forward in 1941 when a court ordered the Chicago and Western
Indiana Railroad to reroute tracks in the vicinity of the airfield. Midway
handled a full 25% of the nation's 417,000 passengers during that year.
The airport was officially renamed on July 8, 1949[3] by a unanimous vote in
the City Council to "Chicago Midway Airport" in honor of the World War II
Battle of Midway[3] – not after Midway Airlines, as many have believed, nor
because the airport is located at the west end of 59th Street (the eastern
end of which is part of Chicago's historic Midway Plaisance). Midway saw 3.2
million passengers carried on 223,000 flights during 1949. The number of
passengers rose to 3.5 million the next year and reached a height of 10
million in 1959. This video of Chicago Midway Airport in 1954 shows the
increase in traffic that Midway Airport experienced throughout the
1950s.[14]
The April 1957 OAG shows 414 weekday fixed-wing departures from Midway: 83
American, 83 United, 56 TWA, 40 Capital, 35 North Central, 28 Delta, 27
Eastern, 22 Northwest, 19 Ozark, 11 Braniff, 5 Trans-Canada and 5 Lake
Central. Air France, Lufthansa and REAL (of Brazil) had a few flights a
week.
But Midway was running out of room, and in any case could not handle the 707
and DC-8 jetliners that began appearing in 1959; every Chicago jet flight
had to use O'Hare, which had opened to the airlines in 1955. Electras and
Viscounts could have continued to fly out of Midway, but O'Hare's capacious
new terminal opened in 1962, allowing airlines to consolidate their flights.
Midway had no major airline service from 1962 until the 727 appeared in
1964. In August 1966 a total of four fixed-wing arrivals were scheduled, all
United: three 727s from Baltimore and one from La Guardia.
[edit] Post-O'Hare reconstruction (1963–1993)
By 1967, reconstruction had begun at the airport, adding three new
concourses with 28 gates and three ticket counters,[3] and in 1968 the city
invested $10 million in renovation funds.[13] The funds partly supported
construction of the Stevenson Expressway, which proved to be a major route
for passengers to the airport, and Midway saw the return of major airlines
during that year, serving 1,663,074 passengers on more than 274,062
flights,[3] aided in part by the introduction of jets, such as the McDonnell
Douglas DC-9, Boeing 727, and Boeing 737, that were capable of using
Midway's shorter runways, which the Boeing 707 and Douglas DC-8 could not.
In 1979, Midway Airlines began operations,[3] the first to do so after the
Airline Deregulation Act of 1978, and went on to become the flagship carrier
at Midway before ending its operations in 1991.[13] Midway Airlines helped
revitalize the airport and led the way for other discount carriers, who
benefited from Midway's lower costs and close proximity to Chicago's Loop,
to prosper.[13] Southwest Airlines, which began operations at Midway in
1985,[15] was one such beneficiary. Three years earlier, in 1982, the City
of Chicago purchased Midway Airport from the Chicago Board of Education for
$16 million.[13]
The Chicago Transit Authority displaced the original location of the Carlton
Midway Inn to open a new CTA terminal at the airport on October 31, 1993 for
the newly established Chicago 'L' Orange Line, which connected Midway to
Chicago's Loop.[3] The CTA's Orange Line connects Midway to downtown Chicago
via elevated train transportation.[3] Midway Airport is the terminus of the
line, which traverses the southwest portion of the city before ending up in
the Loop and cycling back to Midway again. The Orange Line does not run 24
hours a day (unlike the Blue Line, which provides 24-hour service to O'Hare
& the Red Line), but does operate extensive hours from about 4:00 A.M. to
1:00 A.M., running at an average of 8-minute intervals. The train journey
from Midway Airport to the Loop takes 25 minutes.
[edit] Recent history (1994–)
In 1996, Chicago Mayor Richard M. Daley announced the Midway Airport
Terminal Development Program, which was launched the next year. At the time,
it was the largest public works project in the state.[16] The Midway Airport
parking garage opened in 1999, bringing covered parking to the airport for
the first time. The garage, offering 3,000 hourly and daily parking spaces,
is connected to the Midway terminal building for convenient access to ticket
counters and baggage claim areas.[3]
Continuing with the expansion project, a pedestrian bridge over Cicero
Avenue was constructed in 2000. The bridge connects the new terminal to the
new concourses.[13] In 2001, the new 900,000-square-foot (84,000 m2) Midway
Airport terminal building opened, offering expanded ticket counters,
spacious baggage claim areas, traveler information and a short walking
distance to airline gates.[3] A 50,000-square-foot (4,600 m2) food court
opened with Chicago-style food and retail options, and in 2002, Midway
welcomed the return of direct international service after a 40-year absence
with the opening of the new Federal Inspection Service facility in Concourse
A.[17]
In June 2004, Mayor Daley and airline officials celebrated the completion of
the Terminal Development Program.[13] The expansion project resulted in the
addition of 14 gates (from 29 to 43), with the airport now providing 43
gates on 3 concourses.[13] A new 6,300-space economy parking garage,
including a new bridge and roadway used exclusively for buses shuttling
passengers to and from the terminal, opened in December 2005.[13]
Simultaneous to Midway's expansion, ATA Airlines began rapid expansion at
Chicago Midway in the early 2000s, and prior to 2004, ATA offered
significant scheduled service to destinations from Midway Airport and was
the airport's dominant carrier, occupying and operating 14 of the 17 gates
in Concourse A.[18] However, after the airline declared bankruptcy in
October 2004, scheduled service from Midway significantly decreased.
ATA Airlines opened their Chicago-Midway hub in 1992, and was the largest
carrier at Midway as recently as 2004. ATA ceased all operations in April
2008. In the picture is an ATA Boeing 737-800
Due to repeated cancellations to its schedule, ATA then offered non-stop
flights to 4 destinations, and mainly operated out of only 2 gates in
Concourse B. On May 11, 2007, the airline added new service from Chicago to
Oakland and Ontario, California.[19] These new additions marked the first
time ATA increased service at Chicago Midway in almost three years. However,
just five months later, ATA announced they would end service to Ontario on
January 7, 2008.[20] On April 3, 2008, ATA Airlines discontinued all
operations. The airline had operated at Chicago-Midway since 1992.[9]
As of November, 2008, Porter Airlines flies between Midway and Toronto,
Canada, as the only international route served from Chicago-Midway, since
ATA Airlines ceased operations in April that year; it had flights to Mexico
before the airline closed operations, until Volaris started operations from
Guadalajara on December 13, 2010.
In early 2009, construction began on an expansion of Concourse A.
Construction is complete and a new walkway, food court, and viewing have
been built to connect gates A4A and A4B to the main A concourse.
Construction was completed in the spring of 2010.
[edit] Privatization
On April 20, 2009, a $2.5 billion deal to privatize the airport via a
99-year lease fell through when the consortium could not put together
financing. The City is to keep $125 million in the downpayment. The
consortium operating under the name of Midway Investment and Development
Company LLC consisted of Vancouver Airport Services, Citi Infrastructure
Investors and Boston's John Hancock Life Insurance. It was awarded the
contract in October 2008 by the City Council which voted 49-0 to approve it.
The consortium would have operated the airport and collected airport
parking, concession and passenger facility charges. However, Chicago would
have continued to provide fire and police services. Chicago privatized the
Chicago Skyway in 2007.[21]
The two original Southwest Airlines maintenance hangars at Midway Airport.
[edit] Statistics
Chicago Midway Airport is the second largest passenger airport in the
Chicago metropolitan area, and is the second busiest in the state of
Illinois after Chicago O'Hare International Airport.[5] In 2009 17,089,365
passengers traveled through Chicago Midway, second behind O'Hare
International Airport, and ahead of Gary/Chicago International Airport and
Chicago Rockford International Airport.[5] In 2005, Chicago Midway
International Airport was the 30th busiest airport in the United States in
terms of passenger traffic.[22] In its 80-year history of passenger traffic,
Midway Airport has had 21 incidents and accidents, and only one accident
since 1976.
Southwest is the dominant carrier at Midway, controlling 31 of the airport's
43 gates. Currently, the airline offers 216 daily departures to 52
destinations.[23]
Chicago Midway International Airport ranked third amongst large airports in
the nation for "Best On-Time Arrival Rates" in June 2007, with 75.4% of all
flights (8,087) arriving on time, a 3.8% increase from the previous
year.[24] It ranked highest in customer satisfaction among medium-sized
airports (10 million to 30 million passengers per year) in J. D. Power and
Associates' 2008 study.[25]
[edit] Airfield
The original fully developed 1940s layout included eight runways that
crisscrossed the 8-by-8-block (one square mile) property. All terminals and
hangars were on the square periphery. By the late 1970s the shorter
north–south and east–west runway pairs had been closed, though some were
converted to taxiways. The other four original runways remain in use, all
significantly strengthened and enhanced, but essentially the same lengths as
always. A short runway (13R/31L) for light aircraft was added in 1989.
Chicago Midway International Airport covers one square mile (640 acre, 2.59
km2) and currently has five runways:[26]
* Runway 13C-31C: 6,522 × 150 ft (1,988 × 46 m), air carrier runway, ILS
equipped.
* Runway 4R-22L: 6,446 × 150 ft (1,965 × 46 m), air carrier runway, ILS
equipped.
* Runway 4L-22R: 5,507 × 150 ft (1,679 × 46 m), general aviation and air
taxi.
* Runway 13L-31R: 5,141 × 150 ft (1,567 × 46 m), general aviation and air
taxi.
* Runway 13R-31L: 3,859 × 60 ft (1,176 × 18 m), light aircraft only.
Because Midway is surrounded by buildings and other development, the landing
thresholds of the runways are displaced to provide a proper obstacle
clearance. Both the FAA and the airlines ensure safety by adhering to
calculated load limits and various weather minimums. Because of the
displaced landing thresholds, the runways have shorter distances available
for landings than for takeoffs. 13C-31C, the longest runway, only has an
available landing distance of 6,059 feet (1,847 m) in the southeast
direction, and 5,826 feet (1,776 m) operating to the northwest. All the
other runways have a landing distance below 5,930 feet (1,810 m).[27] The
largest aircraft normally seen at Midway is the Boeing 757. Due to the short
runways, widebody aircraft are impractical, and even Boeing 737s must
occasionally take off less than fully loaded on hot summer days when
aircraft performance is substantially reduced. Normally, the commercial
planes only takeoff and land on runways 4R, 22L, 31C, and 13C. The other
runways are used by smaller aircraft. Out of the four large runways, all are
used about evenly, with the exception of 13C. 13C is only used occasionally
in certain weather conditions.
[edit] Terminals, airlines and destinations
Destinations served nonstop from Chicago-Midway (As of Summer 2011)
Southwest Airlines is the dominant carrier at Midway, operating more than
225 daily flights out of 29 of Midway's 43 gates to over 45 destinations
across the United States.
An AirTran Airways Boeing 717-200 with a Southwest Airlines Boeing 737-700
in the background.
The carriers transporting the most passengers from Chicago Midway Airport
are Southwest and AirTran. In 2008, a total of 17,340,497 passengers were
carried through MDW, a 10.52% decrease from the previous year. Also in 2008,
253,901 aircraft passed through Midway Airport, a 16.66% decrease from
2007.[28] Since the merger of Northwest Airlines into Delta, Delta is now
the second largest carrier at Midway, surpassing AirTran in number of daily
flights and year round destinations.
For complete information on flights to and from Chicago Midway International
Airport, please see the airport's website.
Midway has 43 aircraft gates on three concourses (A, B, and C)[3]
Note: All international arrivals are handled in Concourse A.
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