✈️ Weekly Gap Between Chicago’s Two Airports Widens to 211 Movements
Business aircraft movements at Chicago’s KMDW and KPWK were close in mid-September, but the gap widened the following week, showing that weekly activity at the two airports did not move in tandem. Avi-Go data show that during the six weeks ending October 8, 2026, KMDW recorded a total of 5,754 movements, compared with 5,083 at KPWK. From September 11 to September 17, 2026, they recorded 991 and 963 movements, respectively, a gap of 28. From September 18 to September 24, 2026, the figures were 1,024 and 813, a gap of 211. From September 25 to October 1, 2026, the two airports recorded 991 and 789 movements, respectively; earlier, the figures were 791 and 750 from August 28 to September 3, 2026, and 961 and 889 from September 4 to September 10, 2026. These figures count each takeoff or landing at each airport as one movement; they are not deduplicated by complete flight.
Impact: From September 18 to September 24, 2026, KMDW recorded 33 more movements than in the preceding week, while KPWK recorded 150 fewer, widening the gap between the two airports by 183 movements. For service providers arranging business aircraft parking and ground handling at the two Chicago airports, using the citywide total to assess demand at either airport may obscure differences in how their workloads change within a week.
Recommendation: Track movements at KMDW and KPWK separately, and use the airport-specific changes from September 11 to September 17 and from September 18 to September 24, 2026, to review the basis for parking-stand allocation and ground-handling staffing. The figures for October 2 to October 8, 2026, were 996 and 879 movements, respectively. Continue monitoring how the gap changes in subsequent full reporting periods; do not infer a trend from this final period alone.