Flight Between Chicago's O'Hare and Midway Airports Excites Air Travelers

We can dream, can’t we?

Aviation enthusiasts were rightfully excited earlier this month when they noticed that a United Airlines flight traveled from O’Hare International Airport in Chicago 20 minutes downtown to Midway International Airport. Alas, it was just the airline repositioning a charter flight.

“I didn’t believe it was real so I had to look it up. Who is taking this, and WHY??” Tim Regan wrote in a tweet.

The distance between the two airports might be 20-30 minutes as the crow flies, but it’s more like an hour or longer in Chicago traffic. It’s difficult to get to either airport. O’Hare is on the outskirts of the city but has a huge volume. Midway is in the city itself. That’s part of the reason why so many people were excited.

A United spokesperson said this was a very common occurrence. Many flyers hope it will become a more common occurrence. But United does not fly regularly to Midway Airport. As it turns out, the charter flight that was repositioned was a charter by the Chicago White Sox baseball team.

“Beats driving in that traffic,” said another person.  

“Maybe construction traffic is just that bad,” another added.

From a practical standpoint, some questioned whether such a short flight is even needed. Even going its top speed, the charter flight took 35 minutes between airports, according to flight apps. A typical drive takes about 55 minutes to an hour.

It’s an interesting topic, to be sure, but not one that the airlines or city officials are ready to take up. United is the main tenant at O'Hare while Southwest Airlines carries the vast majority of passengers at Midway.

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