More than a million people are expected to fly through Chicago’s airports over Labor Day weekend, twice as many as last year, but travelers driving to the airport may encounter some extra headaches. Some O’Hare International Airport parking lots remain closed and the “People Mover” train that once connected parking lots and terminals remains out of service.
At least two economy lots remain inaccessible to travelers. Lot E is closed. Lot H was converted to paid employee parking in 2019, and though some employees were temporarily able to park closer to the terminals last year as part of “pandemic mitigation efforts,” they have since returned to other lots, including Lot H, Chicago Department of Aviation spokeswoman Christine Carrino said in an email.
The airport does not anticipate parking shortages, but if lots reach capacity staff will offer parking vouchers for the main garage, Carrino said, as they have done before.
Those who do park in the economy lots will rely on shuttle buses to get to and from the terminals, while the “People Mover” remains closed more than 2 1/2 years after work to update and expand the Airport Transit System was supposed to be substantially complete. The work has been going on for six years, and the trains have been shut down completely since January 2019.
Carrino did not provide an updated time frame for when the train might reopen, but said the system was going through the “final testing process.”
The contractor on the project was following a “systematic and deliberate procedure” to ensure train systems meet requirements, testing that included verifying the system’s response to unscheduled door opening alarms, Carrino said. Some of the systems have not achieved the required results, and are undergoing work.
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The Aviation Department “understands the inconvenience and impacts of not having the system active to support airport operations” but also needs it to perform reliably before opening to the public, she said.
In the meantime, both airports are expected to be busy over the holiday weekend, even as Chicago health officials recommended stricter quarantine and testing for unvaccinated travelers, with the delta variant of the coronavirus on the rise nationwide.
Nearly a million people are expected to travel through O’Hare between Thursday and Monday, with more than 210,000 flying Friday, the busiest day at O’Hare, according to the Aviation Department.
More than 200,000 are expected to fly through Midway Airport, where the busiest day will be Monday, with 45,000 travelers. Both airports anticipate seeing more than twice as many people over the holiday weekend as last year, the Aviation Department said.
Even more people will be driving. Nearly 7.4 million vehicles are expected to use the Illinois Tollway system between Friday and Tuesday, according to a news release from the Illinois Tollway. Friday will likely be the busiest day, with 1.8 million vehicles expected on the roads, up from 1.6 million on a typical day.