Chicago Midway International Airport Totally Explained

Everything about Chicago Midway International Airport totally explained

Chicago Midway International Airport, 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. Midway is heavily used by low-cost carriers, such as AirTran Airways and Southwest Airlines, and to a lesser extent by legacy carriers, such as Continental Airlines, Delta Air Lines, and Northwest Airlines. Both the Stevenson Expressway and Chicago Transit Authority's "L" Train Orange Line provide passengers access to downtown Chicago.
   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. In 2007, 19,378,885 passengers traveled through Chicago Midway, second behind O'Hare International Airport, and ahead of Gary/Chicago International Airport and Chicago Rockford International Airport. In 2005, Chicago Midway International Airport was the 30th busiest airport in the United States in terms of passenger traffic. In its 80-year history of passenger traffic, Midway Airport has had 21 incidents and accidents, and only one accident since 1976. 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.. Chicago Midway International Airport 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.
   Today, Midway Airport serves as a focus city for Dallas-based Southwest Airlines and Orlando-based AirTran Airways. 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 before the airline filed for bankruptcy in April 2008, immediately discontinuing all flights. Southwest is the dominant carrier at Midway, controlling 29 of the airport's 43 gates. Currently, the airline offers 227 daily departures to 47 destinations. AirTran is the second largest carrier, occupying 5 out of the 43 gates at Midway, and offering over 20 daily nonstop flights to 8 destinations; 6 of which are served year-round.
   Currently the city is seeking approval from the current airline carriers to auction a lease for the operation rights of the airport to a private company. Such a lease is estimated to be valued at $3 billion dollars for the city. Approval by five of the seven carriers is required. Midway Airport was built on a 320-acre (1 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. 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. When the state of Illinois was created, 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. However, by 1959, the airport had proved unable to handle larger aircraft and higher passenger loads. By 1961, the airport faced a 60% drop in passenger traffic, largely due to the opening of O'Hare in 1955. 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.
   The Chicago Transit Authority displaced 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. 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.
   In June 2004, Mayor Daley and airline officials celebrated the completion of the Terminal Development Program. However, after the airline declared bankruptcy in October 2004, scheduled service from Midway significantly decreased. Due to repeated cancellations to its schedule, ATA now offers non-stop flights to 4 destinations, and mainly operates out of only 2 gates in Concourse B. On May 11, 2007, the airline added new service from Chicago to Oakland and Ontario, California. 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'd end service to Ontario on January 7, 2008. In March 2008, ATA Airlines announced they'd pull out of Chicago on June 7, 2008. The airline had operated at Chicago-Midway since 1992.
   Also in March 2008, AirTran Airways announced that flights to Minneapolis/St. Paul and Charlotte would be discontinued. An AirTran spokesperson said they discontinued these routes due to lack of customer demand. This leaves AirTran flying nonstop to 7 destinations.
   In May 2008, Porter Airlines announced that it plans to began flights to Toronto in November, pending government approval.

Privatization

Chicago Mayor Richard M. Daley has sought the approval of the airlines that operate at Midway to pursue privatization of the airport. Approval of five of the seven airlines must be received before the airport can be put out for bids. Southwest and Delta have given tentative approval and AirTran, ATA, Frontier, and Northwest say a deal is near. The deal is being held up by requested assurances that costs won't escalate and operations and maintenance won't decline. Despite the frequency of international privatization of airports, Midway would be the first domestic airport to privatize. The deal would supposedly raise $3 billion for underfunded pensions and long-term infrastructure. Supposedly the terms of the deal would involve a 50 year lease that's similar in structure to that of the Chicago Skyway. Mayor Daley is receiving encouragement from Wall Street financiers. At least six groups have formed to bid on the long-term lease in advance of the March 31 2008 deadline for qualification statements.

Previous airline service

Before the rise of O'Hare in the late 1950s, Midway was the world's busiest airport and one of the key hubs in the U.S. airline system.
Both American Airlines and United Airlines ended all scheduled service to Midway in September 2006, in favor of concentrating Chicago-area operations at the larger nearby O'Hare International Airport. However, despite its small size compared to O'Hare, Midway is still a vital transportation terminal. Its key advantage is that it's closer to the Loop than O'Hare. The average train ride on the Orange Line from the Loop to Chicago Midway International Airport is about 20–25 minutes. Big Sky Airlines, which commenced non-stop service on December 3, 2006 between Springfield, Illinois and Midway, later expanded the service to include daily nonstop flight to Eau Claire, Wisconsin, beginning on March 17. However, citing poor demand, both the Springfield as well as the Eau Claire flights were discontinued on June 9, 2007. Mesa Airlines, which began non-stop service from MDW in early 2007, discontinued all flights to Decatur and Quincy, Illinois, effective November 9, 2007. The flights, which were operated by Air Midwest, were terminated citing poor passenger demand.
Chicago Midway International Airport was once the largest hub of ATA Airlines. ATA had operated a hub at Midway since 1992. As recent as 2004, ATA operated over 100 daily flights to over 30 destinations. The airline had cut back service from Chicago ever since declaring bankruptcy in late 2004. In April 2008, the airline declared bankruptcy again, this time discontinuing all operations. On April 3, 2008, ATA Airlines ended all operations, including service to the four cities the airline still served at Chicago-Midway.

Airfield

The original fully developed 1940s layout included 8 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. Four of the original runways remain, all significantly strengthened and enhanced, but essentially the same lengths as always. A short runway for light aircraft was added in 1989.
Chicago Midway International Airport covers and currently has five runways:

Runway 13C/31C: 6,522 x 150 ft. (1,988 x 46 m), air carrier runway, ILS equipped.
Runway 4R/22L: 6,446 x 150 ft. (1,965 x 46 m), air carrier runway, ILS equipped.
Runway 4L/22R: 5,507 x 150 ft. (1,679 x 46 m), general aviation and air taxi.
Runway 13L/31R: 5,141 x 150 ft. (1,567 x 46 m), general aviation and air taxi.
Runway 13R/31L: 3,859 x 60 ft. (1,176 x 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 assure safety by limiting loads and adhering to adjusted weather minimums. Also because of displaced thresholds the runways are actually a lot shorter in terms of take-offs and landings. 13C/31C, the longest runway, only has a maximum take-off and landing distance of, and on the opposite end of the runway the maximum take-off and landing distance is . All the other runways have a maximum take-off and landing distance below .

Airlines and destinations

The carriers transporting the most passengers from Chicago Midway Airport are Southwest and AirTran. These airlines, along with the 4 (3 come June) other airlines that serve Chicago Midway make up the passenger traffic. In 2007, these airlines carried a total of 19,378,855 passengers through MDW, a 2.7% increase over the previous year. Also in 2007, 304,657 aircraft passed through Midway Airport, a 2.1% increase over 2006.
For complete information on flights to and from Chicago Midway International Airport, please see the airport's website

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Chicago Midway International Airport provides 43 aircraft gates on 3 concourses (A, B, and C) A 6-year-old boy was killed as a passenger in a vehicle that was struck by the plane after it skidded into the street.

Date	egistration	ircraft	arrier	ocation	ummary
05/31/36	NC14979	DC-2	Trans World Airlines	-	On approach to 27L, 1 engine out, strong gusts, crashed half a mile east of field
12/04/40	NC25678	DC-3A	United Airlines	6356 So. Keating	Pilot lost sight in bad weather, spun in
05/21/43		B-24	US ARMY	3625 W. 73rd St.	On approach, disoriented in bad weather, hit huge gas storage tank south east
09/26/46	NC19939	DC-3	Trans World Airlines	West of 96th Ave. at 97th St.	Mid-air collision with Boeing PT-17, DC-3 limped in to Midway
07/02/46	NC28383	DC-3	Trans World Airlines	-	Crashed northeast of field
03/10/48	NC37478	DC-4	Delta Air Lines	5000 W. 55th St.	Plane took off 36L, at went vertical, at nosed over, crashed on 55^th St.
03/26/49	NC90736	DC-6	American Airlines	-	Hit power lines on approach
12/18/49	NC86501	L-049	Trans World Airlines	-	Landing too far down 13R crashed through fence, ended up at 63rd and Cicero
01/04/51	N79982	C-46	Monarch Airlines	-	Overloaded taking off on 31L, couldn't climb, crashed on railroad tracks one half mile northeast
09/16/51	N74689	C-46	Peninsula Transport	-	Belly-landed away at northeast 63rd and Harlem
03/03/53	N6214C	L-1049	Eastern Airlines	On field	Landed on 31L, gear collapsed, skidded southwest toward Hale School
07/17/55	N3422	Convair 340	Braniff International Airways	On field	Hit gas station sign on approach to 13R, flipped over, crashed
08/05/55	N74601	Boeing 377	Northwest Airlines	-	Landed 31L, couldn't stop, crashed through fence 55th and Central
02/20/56	N7404	Vickers Viscount	Capitol	On field	Landing on 31L plane flopped in short of threshold
03/15/59	N94273	Convair 240	American Airlines	-	Lost sight of 31L on approach, crashed in railroad yard one half mile south of field
11/24/59	N102R	L-1049H	Trans World Airlines	Came to rest 63rd and Kilpatrick	Plane departed 31L, fire on #2, circled to land 31L, crashed southeast of field
09/01/61	N86511	L-049	Trans World Airlines	-	Plane departed Midway, lost elevator bolt, crashed near Hinsdale, Illinois
12/08/72	N9031U	737-200	United Airlines	71st and Springfield	Aircraft descended too low on approach to 31L and struck houses, crashed southeast of airport
03/25/76	N1EM	Lockheed Jetstar	Executive	On field	Pilot unfamiliar with plane attempted take off 13R, never airborne, crashed into fence 63rd and Cicero
08/06/76	N9446Z	B-25 Bomber	Air Chicago	-	Poor maintenance, plane took off 4L, lost engine 2, crashed west of field
12/08/05	N471WN	737-700	Southwest Airlines	55^th & Central	Landed 31C during snowstorm, crashed through fence, hit 2 cars, killed child in car, 55th and Central

INFORMATION SOURCED FROM: Civil Aeronautics Board archives, NTSB records, bukiri-research.
NOTE: The runway now designated 13C-31C was designated 13R-31L until 1989, when a new Runway 13R-31L was built. Runway 27L was closed and is now designated taxiway K.

Transit

Midway Airport is served by the Chicago Transit Authority's "L" trains. Passengers can board Orange Line trains at a station in the airport terminal, which runs to downtown Chicago and the Loop (transit time about 25 minutes). This same station doubles as a stop for many CTA-run buses that serve the surrounding areas. Midway is one of the few airports in the United States that have rapid transit train to terminal service.

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