O’Hare, Midway could see record number of air travelers over Fourth of July holiday

CHICAGO — Millions of people around the country will be traveling through the air during the Fourth of July holiday.

That means Chicago’s two major airports could be in for some record-breaking days, as traffic began ramping up Wednesday with the start of the busy and extended holiday weekend.

O’Hare International Airport is expected to welcome 1.54 million travelers from Wednesday through Monday, up 11% compared to last year’s Fourth of July weekend and a 9% increase over 2019, the busiest year on record.

In fact, heavy Fourth of July traffic could help O’Hare edge past Atlanta’s Hartsfield-Jackson International Airport as America’s busiest.

American Airlines, for example, is running its largest-ever Fourth of July operation this year, with more than 4,800 flights scheduled to depart from O’Hare from Friday through Monday, 20% more than last year’s Fourth of July weekend.

Midway International Airport, meanwhile, is expected to see a little more than 300,000 travelers from Wednesday through Monday, making it about 1.8 million total travelers projected to go through Chicago’s two major airports during the holiday weekend.

Things are already off to a busy start.

“So far this year we’ve had two record-breaking days, as far as TSA screening passenger count,” Georgiaree Godfrey, Director of Public Information for the Chicago Department of Aviation, said Wednesday from O’Hare.

“So I feel like this is going to be a good year for us, especially in comparison to 2019.”

Arriving on time

Godfrey recommends that passengers should arrive to the airport two hours before their flight for domestic travel and three hours before their flight for international travel.

If you’re flying out of O’Hare, of course, the first hurdle is just navigating through the ongoing Kennedy Expressway construction to get there.

“You’ve got to remember, the Kennedy has lots of traffic,” Godfrey said. “So that 45 minutes that you think you may need maybe puts you two hours behind, because of the traffic on the Kennedy.”

O’Hare has added a rideshare pickup location to Terminal 3 to the one already at Terminal 2.

“For passengers who are arriving in T3, I know they’ll appreciate not having to walk over here and catch the ATS to connect to another terminal to get rideshare,” Godfrey said.

Nationally, TSA says air travelers should expect the busiest day to be Sunday, when passenger volume is forecast to reach 2.9 million.

As of about 11 a.m. Monday, according to flychicago.com, there were 26 flight cancellations at O’Hare, with average delays of less than 15 minutes, and one flight cancellation at Midway, with average delays also under 15 minutes.

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