Midway International Airport

{{Multiple image on static display as part of the Midway memorial Early history (1923–1962) Originally named Chicago Air Park, Midway Airport was built on a plot in 1923 with one cinder runway mainly for airmail flights. In 1926, the city leased the airport and on December 12, 1927 named it Chicago Municipal Airport. By 1928, the airport had twelve hangars and four runways, which were lit up for night operations. International Airports In 1931, a new passenger terminal opened at 62nd St; (The July 1932 Official Aviation Guide (OAG) shows 206 scheduled airline departures a week.) More construction was funded in part by $1 million from the Works Progress Administration; the airport expanded to fill the square mile in 1938–41 after a court ordered the Chicago and Western Indiana Railroad to reroute tracks that had crossed the square along the northern edge of the older field. The March 1939 OAG shows 47 weekday departures: 13 on United, 13 American, 9 TWA, 4 Northwest, and two each on Eastern, Braniff, Pennsylvania Central, and C&S. New York's airport (Newark, then LaGuardia by the end of 1939) was then the busiest airline airport in the United States, but Midway passed LaGuardia in 1948 and kept the title until 1960. The diagram on the January 1951 C&GS approach chart shows four parallel pairs of runways, all or less, except for the runway 13R (current runway 13C) and the runway 4R. The April 1957 OAG shows 414 weekday fixed-wing departures from Midway: 83 American, 83 United, 56 TWA, 40 Capital, 35 North Central, 28 Delta, 27 Eastern, 22 Northwest, 19 Ozark, 11 Braniff, 5 Trans-Canada, and 5 Lake Central. Air France, Lufthansa, and REAL (of Brazil) had a few flights per week. Midway, being surrounded by buildings on all sides, meant that the airport was unable to expand; its runways were too short to safely handle larger four-engine jetliners (the Boeing 707 and the Douglas DC-8) that appeared in 1959. Instead, Chicago jet flights were directed to use O'Hare, which had opened to airlines in 1955. Lighter aircraft like turboprops Lockheed L-188 Electra's and Vickers Viscounts could have continued to fly out of Midway, but O'Hare's new terminal opened in 1962, allowing airlines to consolidate their flights. From July 1962 until July 1964 when United returned, Midway's only scheduled airline was Chicago Helicopter. In August 1966, a total of four fixed-wing arrivals were scheduled, all United 727s (United was alone at Midway until early 1968). Post-O'Hare reconstruction (1963–1993) By 1967, reconstruction began at the airport, adding three new concourses with 28 gates and three ticket counters, on smaller-capacity, shorter range twin-jet and trijet airliners such as the McDonnell Douglas DC-9, BAC One-Eleven, Boeing 727, and Boeing 737 that could use Midway's runways, which the Boeing 707 and Douglas DC-8 could not. In 1982, the city of Chicago purchased Midway Airport from the Chicago Board of Education for $16 million. Three years later, Southwest Airlines began operations at Midway. Midway was a focus city for Vanguard Airlines from 1997 to 2000. The Carlton Midway Inn moved to allow the Chicago Transit Authority to create a new CTA terminal at the airport on Halloween of 1993. This development helped launch the Chicago 'L' Orange Line, connecting Midway to the Loop. The Midway Airport parking garage opened in 1999, bringing covered parking to the airport for the first time. The garage is connected to the Midway terminal building for convenient access to ticket counters and baggage claim areas. In June 2004, Mayor Daley and airline officials celebrated the completion of the Terminal Development Program. resulted in the addition of 14 gates (from 29 to 43). However, after the airline declared bankruptcy in October 2004, scheduled service from Midway significantly decreased. For over 16 years, Midway had been the main hub for Indianapolis-based ATA, but the airline announced in March 2008 that it would end all flights from Midway on June 7, 2008. Before this, ATA had filed for bankruptcy on April 2, 2008, and ceased all flights the following day. In November 2008, Porter Airlines, which flies between Midway and Billy Bishop Toronto City Airport, was the only international route served from Chicago–Midway after ATA Airlines, which had flights to Mexico, ceased operations in April that year. On December 13, 2010, a second carrier, Volaris, began flights between Guadalajara and Midway. Starting in early 2009, a construction project added a new walkway and food court to Concourse A. The project also connected gates A4A and A4B to the main A concourse. Expansions were completed in the spring of 2010. Privatization attempts Chicago has considered privatizing the airport, but the deals fell through in 2009 and 2013. On April 20, 2009, a $2.5 billion deal to privatize the airport via a 99-year lease fell through, when the consortium could not put together financing. The city would have kept $125 million in the down payment. The consortium operating under the name of Midway Investment and Development Company LLC consisted of Vancouver Airport Services, Citi Infrastructure Investors, and Boston's John Hancock Life Insurance. It was awarded the contract in October 2008 by the City Council, which voted 49–0 in approval to it. The consortium would have operated the airport and collected airport parking, concession, and passenger facility charges. However, Chicago would have continued to provide fire and police services. In September 2013, Mayor Rahm Emanuel terminated new negotiations to privatize the airport, noting that the process was no longer competitive after one of the two finalists had backed out. The one remaining was Great Lakes Airport Alliance – a partnership of Macquarie Infrastructure and Real Assets and Ferrovial. Macquarie was one of the investors in the Chicago Skyway. The group that backed out was a group that included the Australia-based Industry Funds Management and Manchester Airports Group. The Great Lakes proposal had been valued at $2 billion and would have involved a 40-year lease. Modernization program Construction began on expansions of the security checkpoint and main parking garage. The bridge spanning Cicero Ave was widened from to over , allowing up to 17 security lanes and a streamlined queue. Because the current terminal opened just a few months prior to the September 11th attacks, the security area was quickly rendered too small for the new screening measures and was subsequently forced to expand inward, taking away from space in the concourses. The space that was reclaimed by moving security outward into the bridge will be redeveloped with an expansion of the central food court. The main parking garage was extended eastward over the CTA L tracks to add 1,500 spaces and to streamline the entrance way. In addition to the redeveloped central food court, new concession options will open in phases, including a food court in Concourse A, utilizing previously unused space built during the 2010 rebuild of the Gate A4A/B connecting walkway. The program is the largest capital improvement project at the airport since the 2001 terminal redevelopment and has been fully completed. ==Facilities==