Flights to Chicago

Chicago is one of the easiest cities in the country to fly into. O'Hare is a hub for both United and American, and the two of them fight hard over Chicago traffic. Midway is Southwest's big Midwest base. Between them there's a nonstop from nearly every U.S. city of any size, and from a long list of cities abroad. For terminals and the train downtown, see our airports page. For trains, buses and driving, see getting to Chicago.

Route details below come from the airport route tables on Wikipedia as of September 2026. Airlines add and drop routes every season, so check the airline's own schedule before you plan around one.

Who flies where

O'Hare (ORD) is dominated by United and American, with their regional partners covering smaller cities. Delta, Alaska, Frontier, JetBlue and Sun Country fly in too, and Porter started flying from Toronto's downtown Billy Bishop airport to O'Hare on September 1, 2026. The old names from the first version of this page are gone. Continental merged into United in 2012 and US Airways into American in 2015.

Midway (MDW) belongs to Southwest, which flies there year-round from about 70 cities and carried roughly 91 percent of Midway's passengers between June 2025 and May 2026 (Wikipedia). Frontier, Delta (to Atlanta, Detroit and Minneapolis), Allegiant and the Mexican low-cost carrier Volaris fill in the rest. Porter's Midway flights end October 24, 2026, leaving the airline at O'Hare only.

If you're flying Southwest, you're flying into Midway. If you're flying United or American, it's O'Hare. Frontier and Delta serve both, so compare. Search "Chicago (CHI)" on Google Flights or an airline site to see both airports at once.

From the U.S. and Canada

From any large U.S. city there's a nonstop, usually several a day, and even the West Coast flights come in under five hours. New York LaGuardia is the busiest route out of O'Hare, followed by Los Angeles, Denver, Orlando and San Francisco (Wikipedia). From a smaller city, you'll most likely connect, but check first. United Express and American Eagle fly nonstop to O'Hare from dozens of small airports, from Appleton to Asheville. Honolulu and Maui have United nonstops as well.

From Canada, Air Canada flies from Toronto Pearson, Montreal and Vancouver, and United adds Calgary and Toronto. Porter and Air Canada Express fly from Billy Bishop, the handier airport if you're coming from downtown Toronto.

For some of the region's shorter hops, the train is a real alternative. Milwaukee, St. Louis and Detroit all have several Amtrak trains a day into Union Station. Our getting to Chicago page covers those.

From Mexico, the Caribbean and Latin America

Chicago has one of the largest Mexican communities in the country, and the flight map shows it. O'Hare has nonstops to Mexico City on Aeroméxico, United and American, and Volaris and Viva fly to Guadalajara, León, Morelia and Monterrey. At Midway, Volaris flies to smaller cities like Aguascalientes, Zacatecas, Durango and San Luis Potosí. Beach flights run to Cancún, Puerto Vallarta, Los Cabos, Punta Cana, Montego Bay, San Juan, Aruba and more, some only in winter.

Farther south, Copa flies from Panama City, Avianca from Bogotá, and United from São Paulo and Guatemala City, with seasonal flights from San José (Costa Rica), Liberia and San Salvador. From elsewhere in South America, you'll usually connect in Panama City, Bogotá, Miami, Houston or Dallas.

From Europe, the Middle East and Africa

The list of nonstops from Europe is long. Year-round, there are flights from London Heathrow (British Airways, American, United), Dublin, Paris, Frankfurt, Munich, Amsterdam, Zurich, Brussels, Madrid, Lisbon, Vienna, Copenhagen, Warsaw, Kraków, Belgrade, Istanbul and Reykjavík. Summer adds Rome, Milan, Athens, Barcelona, Edinburgh, Shannon and Helsinki, and Condor plans to add Frankfurt from May 2027. With one of the biggest Polish communities outside Poland, Chicago gets LOT flights from both Warsaw and Kraków.

The Gulf carriers are all here. Emirates flies from Dubai, Qatar Airways from Doha, and Etihad from Abu Dhabi, and Royal Jordanian flies from Amman. United plans to resume Tel Aviv on October 23, 2026.

The first version of this page said there were virtually no direct flights from Africa. That's no longer true. Ethiopian flies nonstop from Addis Ababa and EgyptAir from Cairo, and Addis is a good connecting point for much of the continent. The Gulf carriers and the European hubs cover the rest.

From Asia and Australia

Tokyo is the best-connected Asian city. ANA flies from Haneda and Narita, and United and Japan Airlines fly from Haneda. Korean Air flies from Seoul, EVA Air from Taipei, Cathay Pacific from Hong Kong, and Air India from Delhi. Philippine Airlines plans to bring back Manila on November 9, 2026. The Beijing and Bangkok nonstops mentioned in the old version of this page no longer run. From China and Southeast Asia, connect in Tokyo, Seoul, Taipei or Hong Kong, or on the West Coast.

There are no nonstops from Australia or New Zealand. Most people connect in Los Angeles, San Francisco or Dallas. If Chicago is one stop on a longer loop, our page on adding Chicago to a round-the-world trip explains how it fits.

When fares are lowest

We aren't going to quote fares, because they change by the hour. The patterns hold, though.

• Winter after the holidays, January through early March, is when the fewest people want to be here, and fares and hotel rates follow. See Chicago in winter if you can handle the cold.
• Summer is peak season, and the big festival weekends are the most expensive of all. Lollapalooza takes over Grant Park for four days in late July or early August, and the Chicago Marathon fills the city in October. Check our events page before you pick dates.
• Big conventions at McCormick Place can fill the city on random weekdays, so a Tuesday isn't always cheap. If prices jump for no obvious reason, check the convention calendar.
• Check both airports. A Southwest fare into Midway and a United or American fare into O'Hare can be far apart on the same day, and southwest.com is worth a look on its own.
• Use the calendar or flexible-date view. Moving a trip a day or two, especially off a Friday or Sunday, often moves the price more than switching airlines does.

For the rest of the budget, see how to save money on your trip to Chicago.