Recently ThePointsGuy ranked the top 50 airports in the country and rounding out the bottom of the barrel was Chicago’s Midway Airport. Given our love of poking fun at the business travel life and it’s daily grind we had to immediately move Midway Airport (MDW) to the top of our stack of airports to goof on. Here are 10 Funny Things About Midway Airport – the worst US Airport in the Country.
The 10 Funny Things About Airport “X” is a new-ish series we’ve started here at the CBoardingGroup.com. We hope you enjoy it. Check out the airports we’ve laughed about so far.
Check out our Airport Codes Article:
10 Funny Things About Midway Airport
Poor MDW…I kinda feel bad for them. A little. I’ve spent a TON of time in the MDW airport. As a MAJOR Southwest Airlines hub they have a ton of flights in and out of there and since I LUV me some Southwest, I get the enjoy MDW’s “beauty” on a regular basis. Here are 10 Funny Things About Midway Airport that I’ve noticed during my lengthy times there…
I once flew on a Southwest Flight from MDW to ORD (yeah, that’s like 18 miles or something…but hey, we lost an engine on take off and had to avoid dying).
1. They are LITERALLY the worst airport in the country. This is a good place as any to start! As noted in the intro, TPG ranked them as the worst airport in the country. That’s not exactly the kind of award you want to be getting, no? But, it’s certainly well deserved – even after all of the recent renovations, it still pretty much just sucks. Lounges? Nope (well, just one really, the USO). Like delays? Yep, MDW has figured them out quite nicely. Like sitting in traffic on your way to / from the airport? Nailed it.
2. It even ranked lower than La Guardia (LGA) Airport which is truly a rotten hell hole of an airport. How is that even possible!? Well, let me tell you… if Flight Delays are what really get you excited about traveling then you will love MDW. If cramped terminals and crummy food options are what gets you going, MDW will be your second home (no, literally it will be your second home because you will be delayed forever there…).
3. Even the airport itself if not proud of its history and facts. A quick visit to MDW’s website reveals pretty much nothing about the history of MDW because it’s not apparent they have a history and facts section…at first anyway. They do have one…its just hard to find…almost like they are hiding it.
4. It feels like the only airline that flies out of MDW is Southwest. Technically, a few other airlines fly here (like Delta and the infamous Spirit or powerhouse Volaris…ha), but I am pretty sure it’s basically just Southwest flights. Everywhere you look another Southwest Flight is landing or taking off.
5. If you like your airport experience to be akin to visiting a place that looks like it was the offspring of a bus station and a strip mall, then MDW is exactly where you want to be. A lack of inspiring architecture, classic old school airport themes and just plain old are what you get at MDW. Not exactly a masterpiece of architectural beauty…
Looking for something to do on your MDW flight delay? Read how these 6 gadgets help me fight travel boredom
6. You can buy a massive bag of popcorn (Nuts on Clark) to take with and stink up the whole plane! Let me be clear. I love popcorn. And pretty much all types of it. And Nuts on Clark (a famous popcorn-ery) makes some superb kernels. But….and a big but….I don’t need to smell cheese corn inside my tiny aluminium tube as we fly to Orlando.
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7. Terminal C is like a homeless shelter. Terminal A is not too bad, but man, Terminal C is like a homeless shelter. Rough. Rough. Rough.
8. The food sucks. The lackluster food court right near security is always busy…but never with great choices. I am always disappointed. I mean, Chicago as a city has great food and you’d think one or two joints would open up a good shop there, but no. Even the good restaurants stay away from MDW.
9. They have a yoga room…because that’s all that’s needed to make life better for passengers. MDW doesn’t have much in the way of amenities, but apparently a yoga room (just one) was important enough to get added. Yep, if you are feeling stressed from your MDW flight delay, zip over to the Midway Yoga Room and get some downward dogs in. Yep, instead of a lounge they went with a yoga room.
Photo by Li Sun on Pexels.com
10. Runways are short and planes occasionally slide off. Because they are landlocked (or maybe better put, community locked) the MDW runways are a bit shorter than normal. In fact, occasionally a plane will slide off the runway in the winter. The airport installed deceleration arrestors (basically beds of specialized crushed concrete) at the ends of the runway so plane don’t slide into someone’s house.
Final Thoughts (and laughs) about the MDW Airport
We hope you got some laughs out of this piece. It’s easy to poke fun at MDW because, well, they make it easy. Be sure to check out all of our 10 Funny Things About Airport X series.
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2 comments
Back in the day when Midway Airlines operated it’s hub at MDW,
they had an appealing Executive Club across from what was then gate B4.
Too bad Priority Pass or another lounge operator doesn’t take a stab at operating a lounge at MDW.
SO_CAL_RETAIL_SLUT
Mdw is significantly smaller than ORD or the other airports that they were running against. They are a category 1 airport with X passengers. And layovers/delays/cancellations are for your safety really, unless you want strong turbulence and potential emergency landing or smack into a field somewhere. They dont have a lot of room for these lounges, hardly room for the landing strips to be long enough for the planes but they cant expand because of the residences.
Spirit does not fly from mdw. Porter, delta and Volaris do at the SW airport.