Chicago Midway Vs. O'Hare

If you are traveling to Chicago you truly have a choice in what airport you go through. You can choose to travel through bustling O'Hare or the traditionally less expensive Midway. It all depends on where you are going as well.

You really can expect that you can get a good deal with going through Midway. Midway has much more flights with low cost carriers such as Southwest airlines and AirTran Airways, as compared to O'Hare. However, as an exception to that rule, low cost carrier Jet Blue flys out of O'Hare. If you are flying with a traditional legacy carrier such as Delta or United you will most likely have your flight at O'Hare. Southwest Airlines controls 29 of Midway's 43 gates, which gives it control of the airport. Midway airport is among the highest customer pleasing airports of 2008 according to J.D. Power and Associates. If you are really worried about price you can fly Southwest Airlines. Their tickets are usually the least expensive of any airline and rarely involve connections if you are flying out of Midway.

When you fly out of O'Hare airport, you more traditionally fly with legacy carriers like Delta and United. They oftentimes, especially with the legacy carriers that do not have hubs in Chicago, have you connect in another city. This adds on additional cost, and a lot of time as well to your busy schedule. Weather at O'Hare airport is usually worse than weather at Midway airport as well. This could result in your flight being delayed. O'Hare airport is much larger than Midway airport though, which means that if you need a last minute flight to a certain city you have a greater chance of finding it at O'Hare. For international flights you will need to go to O'Hare as there are basically no international flights out of Midway even though it is designated as an international airport. Parking is usually easier to access at Midway airport just because of its size. There are many more shops, and restaurants at O'Hare because of its size.