A new passenger terminal and administration building, funded by a bond issue, was dedicated in 1931

Chicago Midway International Airport also known simply as Midway Airport u2 tour pittsburgh or Midway, u2 tour pittsburgh is an airport in Chicago, Illinois, United States, located on the city's southwest side, eight miles (13 km) from Chicago's Loop. The airport's current IATA code MDW has been used since 1949 when Chicago Municipal u2 tour pittsburgh Airport was renamed Chicago u2 tour pittsburgh Midway Airport, although the airline schedule u2 tour pittsburgh books continued to call it CHI until airline flights u2 tour pittsburgh began at O'Hare. It is bordered by 55th Street, Cicero Avenue (terminal entrance), 63rd Street, and Central Avenue. The airport's northern half is within the Garfield Ridge community u2 tour pittsburgh area, and the southern half is within the Clearing community u2 tour pittsburgh area. The airport is managed by the Chicago Airport System, which also oversees operations at O'Hare International Airport and Gary/Chicago International Airport. The airport is named after the Battle of Midway during World War II.
Midway is dominated by low-cost carrier Southwest Airlines. Delta Air Lines is the airport's other major operator. Both the Stevenson u2 tour pittsburgh Expressway and Chicago Transit Authority's Orange Line provide passengers access to downtown Chicago. Midway Airport is the second u2 tour pittsburgh largest passenger airport in the Chicago metropolitan area, as well as the state of Illinois, after Chicago O'Hare International Airport.
Today, Midway Airport serves as a focus city for Dallas-based Southwest u2 tour pittsburgh Airlines As of 2011, Midway is Southwest's largest focus city. For over 16 years, Chicago Midway International Airport had been the main hub for Indianapolis-based ATA Airlines (ATA), but that service was reduced to four destinations in November 2007, and was scheduled to end by June 7, 2008 before the airline filed for bankruptcy in April 2008, immediately discontinuing all flights.
Originally named Chicago Air Park, Midway Airport was built on a 320-acre (1.3 km²) plot in 1923 and consisted of a single cinder runway that primarily served airmail services. The site was selected following the destruction of the Wingfoot Air Express when it crashed into the Illinois Trust and Savings Building, killing thirteen people, and the city decided to close the Grant Park air strip. In 1926, the Chicago City Council leased the land for commercial purposes from the Chicago Board of Education at a rate of $1560 per year. On December 12, 1927, Midway u2 tour pittsburgh was dedicated as Chicago Municipal Airport by Chicago Mayor William H. Thompson, and became known as "Munie" to many early pilots. The unique one-square-mile footprint of Midway Airport is due to its connection to the Chicago Board of Education. Under the Land Ordinance of 1785, land was divided into townships.
Each township included a one-square-mile (640 acre) section devoted to education. In most instances, one-room school houses were located on this land, the balance of which was farmed to provide funds for the operation of the school. As township school districts consolidated, much of this excess land was typically sold for other purposes. u2 tour pittsburgh The Chicago Board of Education continued to own the Midway Airport section and rent it to the City of Chicago for airport operations until 1982, when an education funding crisis forced the Board of Education to sell the land to the City of Chicago for $16 million.
During its first full year of operation in 1928 the airfield had twelve hangars and four runways, lit for night operations. Air traffic control was handled by flagmen who would be positioned at the end of the runways; they were responsible for controlling u2 tour pittsburgh 14,498 u2 tour pittsburgh flight operations carrying 41,660 passengers that year. The official u2 tour pittsburgh observation site for Chicago's weather records was also moved to Midway during that year from the downtown area and would remain there until it was moved again, this time to O'Hare, in 1980.
A new passenger terminal and administration building, funded by a bond issue, was dedicated in 1931 by Chicago mayor Anton Cermak, and in the following year Midway Airport earned the title of "World's Busiest" with over 100,846 passengers riding on 60,947 flights. During some years thereafter New York's airport (first Newark, then LaGuardia) was the busiest u2 tour pittsburgh airline airport in the United States, but Midway passed u2 tour pittsburgh LaGuardia around 1950 and retained the title until O'Hare claimed it in 1961.
In 1941, Midway u2 tour pittsburgh Airport joined World War II efforts because u2 tour pittsburgh of its long runways and mid-continent position. The war years proved to be a boon for Midway, u2 tour pittsburgh which saw new construction funded in part by $1 million in federal monies from the Works Progress Administration, and work on additional runways moved forward in 1941 when a court ordered u2 tour pittsburgh the Chicago and Western Indiana Railroad to reroute tracks in the vicinity of the airfield. Midway handled a full 25% of the nation's 417,000 passengers u2 tour pittsburgh during that year.
The airport was officially renamed on July 8, 1949 by a unanimous vote in the City Council to "Chicago Midway Airport" in honor of the World War II Battle of Midway. u2 tour pittsburgh  Midway saw 3.2 million passengers carried on 223,000 flights during 1949. The number of passengers u2 tour pittsburgh rose to 3.5 million the next year and reached a height u2 tour pittsburgh of 10 million in 1959. This video of Chicago Midway Airport in 1954 shows the increase in traffic that Midway Airport u2 tour pittsburgh experienced throughout the 1950s.
The April 1957 OAG shows 414 weekday u2 tour pittsburgh 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 a week.
But Midway was running out of room, and in any case could not handle the 707 and DC-8 jetliners that began appearing in 1959; every Chicago u2 tour pittsburgh jet flight had to use O'Hare, which opened to the airlines in 1955. Electras and Viscounts could have continued to fly out of Midway, but O'Hare's capacious new terminal opened in 1962, allowing airlines to consolidate their flights. From July 1962 until the 727 appeared in July 1964 Midway's only scheduled airline was Chicago Helicopter. In August 1966, a total of four fixed-wing arrivals were scheduled, all United: three 727s from Baltimore and one from La Guardia.