Holiday Travel

Locals Insider, a travel guide, recently surveyed past data to determine which airports in the United States are the best and worst for traveling during some of the biggest holiday seasons.

The guide explains that it looked at on-time departures and other factors like delays and cancelations at the 50 biggest airports in the country from November 17, 2023, to January 3, 2024. This included the Thanksgiving travel period from November 17 to 28 and the winter holiday period from December 14 to January 3.

Chicago’s two airports were featured in the report, but for totally different reasons. Passengers traveling in and out of the city during the busy travel season last year had a vastly different experience depending on which airport they used: Chicago O’Hare International Airport (ORD) or Chicago Midway International Airport (MDW).

Chicago Midway was the third-worst airport in the country in terms of delays and cancelations. There were 1,696 holiday flights canceled and 152 delayed during the same period, with a total holiday season delay and cancelation rate of 25.8%.

In contrast, Chicago O’Hare was ranked ninth among the best airports for the holiday season. Out of the 25,032 scheduled during the period examined, it had 21,186 on-time flights, translating into 84.6% of OTP.

Chicago Midway was surpassed only by two airports in Florida for worst performance during the holiday season: Fort Lauderdale-Hollywood International Airport (FLL) was number one, and Orlando International Airport (MCO) was number two.

Others making the top ten on the worst airports for the holiday season list included: