Midway is better

Regarding a previous post on Air Travel, the Trib had an article just today by John Hilkevitch confirming my hunch that Midway is a better bet for on-time travel, vs O'Hare.

Those numbers translate into vastly different flight arrival rates to O'Hare and Midway. The number of planes that land on average at Midway is consistent, from a low of 28 planes to a high of 36 planes each hour, based on weather conditions and other factors, according to the FAA. But at O'Hare, depending whether two or three runways are used for arrivals, the landing capacity fluctuates from as few as 50 airplanes during a snowstorm to as many as 100 planes arriving each hour on a blue-sky day.

"One big difference that many people don't realize is that Midway is a one-runway arrival and a one-runway departure operation. It makes things steady and predictable, usually right around 32 to 34 flights an hour, all day long," said Bob Flynn, the FAA's traffic management officer for all Chicago-area airports.