Early on Christmas Eve, dense fog caused chaos for travelers inside O’Hare and Midway international airports in Chicago, forcing over 50 flights to be grounded and trapping travelers inside for the holidays.
A dense fog advisory was issued by the National Weather Service for the entire Chicago area on Sunday. It was supposed to expire at 9 a.m., but because of the heavy fog, it was later extended until 12 p.m.
About fifty cancellations have occurred at Midway alone thus far, and delays are growing as a result of the FAA imposing a ground stop until 10:30 a.m. following the cancellation of travel late on Saturday night.
In the meantime, O’Hare Airport has only recorded 15 delayed and canceled flights.
A Southwest Airlines representative informed Fox News Digital that the airline was coordinating with travelers and striving to find a solution.
“We’re assisting our customers whose travel plans have been affected by the fog at Chicago Midway, which started to build up on Saturday night and resulted in some diversions and later flight cancellations. Due to the visibility staying below the necessary operational minimums all night and into this morning, we have had to change our start time for Sunday at Chicago Midway.” stated Southwest Airlines. “We have all-hands on deck as our employees are working to quickly take care of our customers and accommodate them on alternative flights.”
With more than 200 daily departures planned over the holiday weekend, Chicago Midway is Southwest Airlines’ fourth busiest airport.
More than 70 flights (less than 1% of the 4242 flights in the system overall) have been canceled due to the fog at Midway on Sunday; the majority of these flights are morning departures from Midway. Southwest stated, “We are currently running the balance of our schedule, but as our operation recovers, we continue to encounter cancellations and delays.”
In addition to weather-related delays, someone on X, the former name of Twitter, reported that early on Christmas Eve, pro-Palestinian demonstrators had blocked the entrance to O’Hare Airport.