Traveling through Midway Airport? Here’s why you may be delayed.
Travelers who fly frequently into Chicago’s Midway Airport are likely no stranger to flight delays.
Through November this year, Midway had one of the highest rates of delayed arrivals among the nation’s busiest airports, with more than 27% of flights arriving late, data from flight-tracking company FlightAware shows. Out of the 50 busiest airports in the country, only those in Las Vegas, Orlando and Fort Lauderdale had a higher share of flights delayed. Fort Lauderdale-Hollywood International Airport had the highest rate of delayed arrivals, with nearly 32% of flights arriving late.
The delays reflect some of the quirks of the smaller of Chicago’s airports, dominated by Southwest Airlines and tightly locked in a residential neighborhood. And for some of the 3.4 million holiday travelers expected at the city’s two airports through Jan. 2, delays at Midway can add headaches and frustration to the trip.
Flights have been less likely to be delayed at the larger O’Hare International Airport. During the first 11 months of the year, 22% of flights arrived at O’Hare late, the FlightAware data shows.
The FlightAware data is just one measure of flight delays. For example, U.S. Department of Transportation data shows about 23% of flights arriving at Midway were reported delayed through September, the most recent month of data available, meaning they arrived at least 15 minutes later than scheduled. That was on par with O’Hare, and slightly better than average for the nation’s major airports, where 24% of arriving flights were delayed.
The Chicago Department of Aviation pointed to other federal data that showed Midway ranked 30th in the nation for the number of delayed flights, though the data doesn’t include certain types of delays and does include some airports too small to make it onto the FlightAware list.
Still, some holiday travelers have already run headlong into Midway delays and cancellations. On Christmas Eve, as dense fog rolled through the city and the Federal Aviation Administration for periods stopped air traffic at the airport, 187 flights were canceled at Midway and 194 were delayed, FlightAware data shows.
Southwest Airlines said the fog prevented inbound planes from landing, and forced diversions and cancellations.
All told, through the first 11 months of the year — excluding Sunday’s travel woes — the average length of delayed arrivals into Midway this year was about 36 minutes, according to FlightAware data.
At Midway, the number of delays is likely a reflection of Southwest Airlines, which has a major hub at the airport, said Henry Harteveldt, travel industry analyst and president of the Atmosphere Research Group.
“If Southwest is having operational problems, then it’s going to affect their flights in and out of Midway,” he said.
Compounding the problem is Chicago weather. And Midway, hemmed in by the surrounding neighborhood, is limited by its number of runways — four — and their configuration, Harteveldt said.
The most common reported reasons for delayed arrivals at Midway this year were late arrivals of a previous flight and issues within a carrier’s control, like maintenance needs, crew problems or cleaning the plane, U.S. DOT data shows. Airlines reported that late planes and carrier delays were responsible for the late arrival of nearly 17% of all flights arriving at Midway.
About 4% of Midway flights were delayed because the arriving plane didn’t have clearance from air traffic control to operate as planned, which could be because of issues like bad weather en route or heavy air traffic. Less than 1% of flights arriving at Midway were delayed because the carrier determined extreme weather prevented the plane from flying, the data shows.
Delayed Southwest arrivals could come down to not enough time on the ground between flights, said industry analyst Bob Mann. Many airlines have long struggled to efficiently address the variabilities of air travel that can add time to flights, but some carriers are more affected than others, he said.
Not enough time between flights becomes a problem when flights take longer than scheduled, which can happen if airspace becomes overloaded with planes and a flight needs to be rerouted, sped up or slowed down to keep planes spaced a safe distance apart, Mann said.
“The more you try to move in a small period of time, the more variability you’re going to get, the more congestion you’re going to get, and the more delays you’re going to get,” he said.
Southwest’s operations showed “substantial” improvement by a variety of measures, including the rate of long delays and on-time performance, in the third quarter of this year compared with 2022, Chief Operating Officer Andrew Watterson said during a call with analysts and reporters to discuss the company’s third-quarter earnings report.
Performance would have been better if not for longer-than-expected trip times because of congestion, weather and runway construction, he said.
“I’m very pleased with our strong improvements in operational performance,” he said, according to a transcript of the call.
In a statement, Southwest said performance into and out of Midway is in line with the rest of its network, which includes improvement in 2023 in on-time performance and fewer cancellations.
“The Southwest Team at Chicago Midway operates one of our largest offerings of flight activity of our 121 airports served and shares the benefits of a network design of nonstop and connecting itineraries that delivers an excellent product we’re proud to offer our Chicagoland customers,” the carrier said.
Last year, Southwest ranked fifth among comparable North American airlines for on-time flights in an annual ranking by aviation firm Cirium, with 74% of 2022 flights on time. The other major U.S. carriers — Delta, American and United — all ranked higher, as did Alaska Airlines, while smaller carriers like JetBlue Airways and Frontier Airlines fared worse.
That year, Southwest also melted down during the end-of-the-year holiday rush, canceling nearly 17,000 flights and stranding more than 2 million travelers. The airline’s December 2022 issues started as a record-setting winter storm paralyzed operations in Denver and Chicago, where Watterson said some 25% of the carrier’s crew are based. Then, as other airlines recovered, Southwest’s challenges snowballed when a crew rescheduling system couldn’t keep up with the chaos.
Southwest recently reached a $140 million settlement to resolve a federal investigation into the meltdown, including a $35 million fine. Most of the settlement will go toward compensating future passengers, which the U.S. Department of Transportation considers an incentive for Southwest to avoid repeating last winter’s mess.
The government said the assessment was the largest it has ever imposed on an airline for violating consumer protection laws.
Even before the settlement, the nation’s fourth-biggest airline by revenue said the meltdown cost it more than $1.1 billion in refunds and reimbursements, extra costs and lost ticket sales over several months.
Southwest has added trucks and other de-icing equipment and will increase staff during extreme cold temperatures at key airports such as Denver, CEO Robert Jordan has said.
But there is good news for Midway, too. Passenger traffic at the airport is up from 2019 levels this year, even as O’Hare has been slow to recover from the pandemic. Holiday traffic at Midway was expected to be about the same as in 2022, and up 4.1% from 2019, with Dec. 26 projected to be the busiest travel day.
At O’Hare, holiday traffic was expected to be 4.6% higher than in 2022. Dec. 20 was anticipated to be the busiest travel day.
In a statement, Chicago Department of Aviation officials said they were “continually focused” on improving the passenger experience at Midway, and talk regularly with airlines and federal regulators to ensure the airport operates efficiently. They highlighted new concessions at the airport, many of which opened this fall.
The CDA has also worked with the FAA and airlines to improve procedures on the airfield and in the airspace around the airport, officials said in a statement. They anticipate room for more improvement as technology and equipment advance.
The Associated Press contributed.
