![]() In addition to the swipe at O’Hare, the airline touted its low prices with a motto aimed at United Airlines, one of the Northwest Side airport’s major tenants: “Fly the wholesale skies.” Midway Airlines’ extended an invitation with an ad headlined: “Go Midway and Kiss O’Hare goodbye.” It was closer to downtown Chicago than O’Hare, in addition to being easier to navigate. Geography and O’Hare’s success - for many years it was the world’s busiest airport - favored the Southwest Side airport’s revitalization. The CAB in 1978 approved Midway Airlines’ offer to take up the slack and operate out of Midway. 1, 1979, from Midway Airport with flights to Cleveland, Kansas City and Detroit. ![]() The newly formed airline would begin service on Nov. Mayor Jane Byrne, right, and Irving Tague, second from right, president of Midway Airlines, view a model of a DC-9 jet at a news conference at City Hall on Oct. ![]() Capitalism assumes that progress requires competition, and the CAB was getting heat from Congress, as the Tribune reported, for “refusing to allow any new airlines into the market since just after World War II.” Tague and his partners were betting that the Civil Aviation Board would bail out Midway Airport by getting Midway Airlines off the ground. Louis flights, the Tribune headlined Tague’s proposal for remaking the Southwest Side airfield: “Midway Airport may find new life as ‘bargain basement.’ ” In 1978, when Midway serviced only two daily Delta Air Lines St. Daley summoned airline presidents and, as the Tribune reported, “bluntly informed them that Midway, a $90 million facility, was being neglected.” Built on Chicago’s street grid, its runways were limited to a milelong square, or about 6,500 ft.Īirlines with jet-propelled craft needed the longer runways at O’Hare, which triggered an exodus from Midway. But as they sprouted jets, Midway paid the price of its geometry. In the 1950s, Midway was the busiest airport in the United States. “Many who worked for airlines or service groups at Midway are being transferred to O’Hare field and their families are talking about moving north, too.” Proprietors are singing the economic blues,” the Tribune reported. “The nearby motels, hotels, restaurants, bars, service stations and parking lots are suffering loss of business, too. The airport’s decline had a contagious effect on neighbors. Midway Airline jets sit parked on the tarmac in 1984.
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