Travel Guide Ranks Midway Airport Among World's Worst
CHICAGO (CBS) -- Travelers love the low fares and fast lines at Midway International Airport, but a leading travel Web site has ranked it one of the worst in the whole world.
Frommers.com ranked Midway as the 10th worst airport terminal in the world.
"Consider this the least-worst of our set of bad airports," the Web site said.
Frommer's ranked Midway at the bottom in part because it ranked worst in the nation for on-time departures, according to U.S. Bureau of Transportation statistics for both 2010 and 2011.
"It isn't a bad place to hang out, with a new food court and a frequent subway connection to downtown Chicago, but any airport is the worst airport if you're stuck there and you aren't getting on a plane," Frommer's says.
The Web site goes on to blame Chicago weather for the problems at Midway.
"Midway's curse may come more from Chicago's notoriously difficult weather than from any problem the airport itself can fix," Frommers says.
But CBS 2's Susan Carlson points out that Midway rarely delays flights due to inclement weather. By contrast, flights at O'Hare International Airport are subject to weather delays regularly because they have a different process for clearing the runways.
"It's just very surprising on multiple levels," Carlson said of the placement of Midway on the worst airport list.
CBS 2's Kris Habermehl added Wednesday morning, "It seems to be that somebody doesn't have the correct image of Midway, but then again, we're biased, because we're here in Chicago, and we love Midway Airport."
Interestingly, the photo Frommer's uses for Midway in the "10 Worst Airport Terminals" slideshow shows a sign at the Orange Line CTA 'L' terminal outside the airport. But the caption below the image incorrectly labels it as a photo of the airport itself.
Rounding out the bottom 10 in the Frommer's list are Aéroport Paris Beauvais-Tille in France; Newark International Airport Terminal B; the U.S. Airways Terminal at LaGuardia International Airport; Amman Queen Alia Airport in Jordan; Terminal 3 at Aéroport Paris-Charles de Gaulle;. Jomo Kenyatta Airport in Nairobi, Kenya; Terminal B/C at Sheremtyevo International Airport in Moscow; Ninoy Aquino International Airport in Manila, the Philippines; and worst of all, John F. Kennedy International Airport Terminal 3.
