Mayor Rahm Emanuel today announced that O’Hare and Midway International Airports continued to grow in 2016 with several new destinations served and increases in passenger volume. The growth was driven by the record 54.1 million people who visited Chicago last year from across the nation and world.

“O’Hare and Midway are gateways to the city and key economic drivers for the region,” Mayor Emanuel said. “Our commitment to making lasting improvements to our international airports is what keeps attracting the airline and hotel sectors to invest in Chicago; driving economic opportunities for neighborhood businesses throughout the city."

Chicago’s top airline carriers, United Airlines and American Airlines increased the gauge of aircraft serving Chicago in 2016 resulting in a 5.2 percent increase to the total number of seats delivering passengers to Chicago.

“2016 was a fantastic year for Chicago's airports,” Ginger S. Evans, Commissioner, CDA said. “Now we are building on our progress with a plan to increase the number of gates, reduce delays and improve our aging terminals.”

Both of Chicago’s airports are on track to exceed the previous year’s passenger volume, with Midway having another record-breaking year in the airport’s 89-year history and O’Hare’s traffic at levels not seen in more than a decade. Through November 2016, passenger traffic at O’Hare and Midway has increased more than 2 percent over 2015. International passenger volume at O’Hare is up more than 5 percent over last year.

Yesterday Mayor Emanuel announced that visitors to Chicago in 2016 reached 54.1 million – a new record and 2.9 percent increase over the previous year’s record performance. The increase of 1.5 million visitors moves the city closer to reaching the Mayor’s goal of 55 million visitors. In 2016 Chicago's tourism industry supported $15 billion in direct tourism spending and an estimated 145,137 jobs - an increase of more than 20,000 new jobs since Mayor Emanuel took office.

Also in 2016, Mayor Rahm Emanuel, the CDA and airlines announced major projects to add five new gates in Terminal 3 and up to nine additional gates in Terminal 5 at O’Hare. Additional gates will increase capacity at the airport, provide significant economic benefit to the city of Chicago, and improve airline performance.

New carriers were welcomed to Chicago in 2016 and existing carriers added flights and destinations. New flight launches into Chicago O’Hare included EVA Air’s route from Tapei, Taiwan (November 2016); Frontier’s route from Cancun, Mexico (November 2016); Interjet’s new flight from Mexico City, Mexico (November 2016); ANA’s route from Tokyo, Japan (October 2016); Sunwing’s flight from Freeport, Bahamas (August 2016); Air Canada’s flight from Vancouver, Canada (June 2016); Volaris’s Monterrey, Mexico route (May 2016); Icelandair’s route from Keflavik, Iceland (March 2016); and China Eastern’s route from Shanghai, China (March 2016).

The new international routes to Taipei, Mexico City, Keflavik and Shanghai will bring approximately $495 million annually in economic impact.

Airlines at Chicago's airports offer more than 240 nonstop destinations worldwide. O’Hare has more than 1,100 daily direct flights to 157 U.S. destinations and 120 daily direct flights to 65 international destinations. Fifty-five airlines serve O’Hare. Midway provides more than 270 daily direct flights to 64 U.S. cities and 12 daily direct flights to nine international destinations.

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