2M folks to move by O’Hare, Midway over vacation weekend – NBC Chicago

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One of the busiest journey durations of the 12 months begins Thursday as Memorial Day weekend begins, with greater than two million folks anticipated to move by Chicago’s O’Hare and Midway International Airports because the unofficial begin to summer time kicks off.

According to the Chicago Department of Aviation, 15% extra folks will journey by O’Hare Airport throughout the 2026 Memorial Day weekend journey rush in comparison with the vacation in 2025. A complete of 1.75 million passengers are anticipated to move by the airport Thursday, May 21 by Tuesday, May 26, with Friday anticipated to be the airport’s busiest day.

At Midway, almost 292,000 vacationers are anticipated throughout the vacation journey interval, the CDA mentioned, marking a 3% improve from the identical interval final 12 months. Friday can be projected to be Midway’s busiest journey day, with almost 54,000 passengers, the CDA mentioned mentioned in a launch.

Travelers to each airports might additionally see “longer than usual wait times” at safety checkpoints as a consequence of to the rise in passengers, the CDA mentioned, with the Transportation Security Administration and the U.S. Customs and Border Protection advising vacationers to get to airports early.

Overall, greater than 18.3 million passengers are anticipated to move by U.S. airports over the busy vacation weekend, TSA mentioned.

Traffic on highways was additionally probably, with 1.9 million folks in Illinois anticipated to journey by automotive for Memorial Day weekend, AAA mentioned. The heaviest site visitors days have been projected to be Friday, Saturday and Monday, and the lightest site visitors journey day was anticipated to be Sunday, transportation knowledge company INRIX mentioned.

Road journeys may also be costly as a consequence of excessive fuel costs, with Illinois’ common fuel worth at $4.35 per gallon in comparison with $3.07 one 12 months in the past.

According to AAA, Chicago landed on the highest 10 listing of U.S. cities for Memorial Day journey for 2026, rating at No. 8.


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