The terminal at Midway International Airport. (Credit: CBS)
CHICAGO (CBS) — Travelers love the low fares and fast lines at Midway International Airport, but a leading travel Web site has ranked it one of the worst in the whole world.
Frommers.com ranked Midway as the 10th worst airport terminal in the world.
“Consider this the least-worst of our set of bad airports,” the Web site said.
Frommer’s ranked Midway at the bottom in part because it ranked worst in the nation for on-time departures, according to U.S. Bureau of Transportation statistics for both 2010 and 2011.
“It isn’t a bad place to hang out, with a new food court and a frequent subway connection to downtown Chicago, but any airport is the worst airport if you’re stuck there and you aren’t getting on a plane,” Frommer’s says.
The Web site goes on to blame Chicago weather for the problems at Midway.
“Midway’s curse may come more from Chicago’s notoriously difficult weather than from any problem the airport itself can fix,” Frommers says.
But CBS 2’s Susan Carlson points out that Midway rarely delays flights due to inclement weather. By contrast, flights at O’Hare International Airport are subject to weather delays regularly because they have a different process for clearing the runways.
“It’s just very surprising on multiple levels,” Carlson said of the placement of Midway on the worst airport list.
CBS 2’s Kris Habermehl added Wednesday morning, “It seems to be that somebody doesn’t have the correct image of Midway, but then again, we’re biased, because we’re here in Chicago, and we love Midway Airport.”
Interestingly, the photo Frommer’s uses for Midway in the “10 Worst Airport Terminals” slideshow shows a sign at the Orange Line CTA ‘L’ terminal outside the airport. But the caption below the image incorrectly labels it as a photo of the airport itself.
Rounding out the bottom 10 in the Frommer’s list are Aéroport Paris Beauvais-Tille in France; Newark International Airport Terminal B; the U.S. Airways Terminal at LaGuardia International Airport; Amman Queen Alia Airport in Jordan; Terminal 3 at Aéroport Paris-Charles de Gaulle;. Jomo Kenyatta Airport in Nairobi, Kenya; Terminal B/C at Sheremtyevo International Airport in Moscow; Ninoy Aquino International Airport in Manila, the Philippines; and worst of all, John F. Kennedy International Airport Terminal 3.
18 Comments
when I was a kid, Chicago was first, biggest, best, busiest, etc., but now everything is the worst, most dangerous, most expensive, probably because it is the MOST CORRUPT, along witht he rest of illinois…
January 18, 2012 at 8:31 am
…and obviously the dumbest people ^^^^^^^^
January 18, 2012 at 9:41 am
Midwaay has higher weather minimums then ord, shorter runways and they conflict with ords operation,,,,,most of airline delays come from thunderstorms and fog, not snow or winter weather CBS get your facts straight.
January 18, 2012 at 8:44 am
Midway is way better than O’Hare, why doesn’t this story talk about how lousy O’Hare is? Once again, the Chicago news media thinks the Loop and north side is far superior to the south side and the suburbs.
January 18, 2012 at 10:21 am
All of Chicago is the armpit of the Universe how’s that? Out of the 50 largest cities Chicago came in dead last for cleanliness Lmfao
http://www.rd.com/travel/50-cleanest-dirtiest-cities-in-america/
January 18, 2012 at 12:33 pm
This report came from Frommer’s. A local site reported it, but didn’t conduct the report.
January 18, 2012 at 12:37 pm
Frommer’s conducted the story and CBS local is just reporting it.
January 18, 2012 at 12:38 pm
Agreed. O’Hare is a pain in the neck, MIdway is great (as far as airports go). I feel like Frommers must have saved some money by not actually comparing airports and just taking a shot in the dark. Oops, missed.
January 18, 2012 at 2:00 pm
Whoever ranked this clearly hasn’t spent any time at the Kansas City airport. That place is the WORST. Have fun if you ever have a 2 hour delay there….
January 18, 2012 at 12:36 pm
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I so disagree with this. We’ve started using Midway, even though O’Hare is MUCH closer, because of the cheaper airfares, better parking and uncomplicated layout. We’ve found it to be clean, the staff courteous and we love the displays. They could use better concessions and seating but that is minor compared to the benefits!
January 18, 2012 at 1:34 pm
I prefer ORD since it’s 15 minutes from our house w/o traffic and I’m loyal to United, but when we do fly out of MDW, I have zero problems. The one thing I don’t like is the distance from I-55 to the actual airport but for MDW itself, it’s clean, I think they have good food options and the delays we experience there aren’t nearly as bad as ORD.
What the article did nail correctly is Newark and LGA. Flying out of LGA on a Friday afternoon is a horrid experience and Newark is just a croweded, smelly cesspool.
January 18, 2012 at 2:09 pm
This is a completely inaccurate report based on my experience. Have flown exclusively out of Midway for years and rarely if ever has a flight been delayed. Frommer’s obviously knows nothing about the airport. I’ve found it to be one of the best with the only issue being delays in retrieving baggage. Frankly that’s a small price to pay for the reliability and convenience that Midway offers.
January 18, 2012 at 2:44 pm
Midway 100% forget about Ohare, Never unless I absolutely have to
January 18, 2012 at 3:32 pm
There is no way that Midway is worse than O’Hare… I serioulsy think they got the two confused… O’Hare has so many delays and cancellations… I have never been delayed at Midway…
Seriously, I’m sitting here laughing at how stupid this is that Midway can get this “award” and not O’Hare. I mean O’Hare ranks INTERNATIONALLY for one of the world’s worst airports
January 18, 2012 at 4:40 pm
this is ridiculous. I’m a chicago resident who’s been to both Midway and O’Hare dozens of times… and I don’t have a problem with either. But if anything O’Hare is certainly worse. But why don’t they mention Heathrow Airport in London? That is the wost airport I’ve ever been to-the design is completely illogical and has you going up and down escalators multiple times to get anywhere. Anyone else hate Heathrow?
January 18, 2012 at 10:52 pm
Midway is horrible! No WiFi in the terminals and the ground crews must be on break all the time because you have to show up early in order to ensure your luggage makes it on your plane and then wait 30 minutes after your plane lands for the luggage to actually show up on a carousel.
January 19, 2012 at 8:34 am
Not delaying flights in bad weather at Midway seems like a reckless practice with the danger of being so close to Lake Michigan and of course, being in an undesirable neighborhood, puts passengers at a greater risk on several levels.
January 19, 2012 at 3:38 pm