Connecting at Chicago Midway: one terminal, one security line

Last checked 30 September 2026

A connection is when your trip has two flights and you change planes in between. At Chicago Midway, Concourses A, B and C are all inside one security area, so a connection between two flights on one ticket is a walk with no second security line.

Two words used below. Security (also called TSA screening) is the checkpoint where your bags go through a scanner and you walk through a body scanner. Once you're through it, you're in the secure area, the part of the airport with the gates. If you leave the secure area you have to go through security again to get back in.

At a glance

• One terminal, one security checkpoint. Concourses A, B and C are all inside the same secure area. The airport says: "All of the concourses within Midway are connected and accessible from each other."
• Arriving on a US flight: "you can access all concourses without clearing the security checkpoint." So a connection between two US flights is a walk with no second security line.
• Two different airlines: the airport says to ask your airlines for instructions. If both flights are on one ticket and bags are checked through, you'd normally stay inside security.
• Landing from another country: the airport doesn't say where passport control is. A typical wait over the last year was about 11 minutes.
• Early and late: TSA checkpoints are open 3:30 a.m. to 11:00 p.m. every day.

Which concourse is my airline in?

The airport's airline list (as listed 24 September 2026) has six airlines. Look up both airlines.

• Concourse A: Allegiant, Delta, Porter, Volaris, and Southwest.
• Concourse B: Southwest.
• Concourse C: Frontier (Concourse C per the airport's list, 24 September 2026).

The airport's airline list (read 24 September 2026) doesn't include American, United, Alaska, JetBlue or Hawaiian. Trade press reports Porter replacing its Midway service with O'Hare service; the O'Hare route is now scheduled to start 25 October 2026. Check with Porter for when its Midway flights end. Airlines do move, and a flight run for one of these airlines by a smaller partner airline can be somewhere else. Your boarding pass or your airline's app is the final word.

Changing concourses

You walk. The airport's map shows a central area, the "Central Market", inside security. Concourses A, B and C all branch off it. There is no train and no bus, and there are moving walkways in Concourses A and B. The airport doesn't publish walking times, so leave enough time for the walk from a far gate in one concourse to a far gate in another.

Landing from another country

Passport control is the desk where an officer from US Customs and Border Protection (CBP) checks your passport. The airport's international page doesn't say where it is. It says only that there are information booths at baggage claim on the lower level and a currency exchange in Concourse A.

If you flew in from a preclearance airport: CBP checks passengers at 16 airports abroad before they board (the list includes Toronto, Vancouver, Calgary, Montreal, Dublin and Abu Dhabi). If you flew from one of them, you skip passport control and the second security check when you land, so those steps don't apply to you. Ask your airline whether your bags go through to your next flight.

How long passport control takes. Over the year to 23 September 2026, about 318,000 passengers came through. Half of them waited about 11 minutes or less. One in ten waited about 27 minutes or longer. Almost nobody waited over an hour. CBP says its times don't include collecting your bags or finding your way around the airport.

The steps, in order:

1. Everyone arriving from another country, including US citizens: go through passport control. Follow the signs for international arrivals, or ask your airline where it is.
2. Everyone: collect your checked bags and take them through Customs. CBP says you must collect them and bring them through.
3. Passengers connecting to another flight: check your bags in again with your airline for your next flight. We couldn't find where the drop-off is, so follow the signs for connecting flights or ask staff.
4. Passengers connecting to another flight: go through security again at Midway's checkpoint, open 3:30 a.m. to 11:00 p.m. every day.
5. Passengers connecting to another flight: walk to your next concourse. A, B and C are all inside the same security area.

Going through security again after an international arrival is the normal routine at US airports. A trial scheme lets some passengers skip it. TSA's announcement of it names two flights, both from London, to Atlanta and Dallas. Midway is not one of them. On a few routes, eligible connecting passengers don't collect and recheck their bags, but still go through security again. Check with your airline.

If your flights are on separate tickets

If you booked two flights separately, you collect your bags, check in again with the second airline, and go through security again. Add the time to collect your bags, check in again and go through security.

Tips

• If both flights are on one ticket and your bags are checked through to your final stop, you normally stay inside security and just walk. Ask when you check in.
• If your two airlines are different, ask them how your bags will be handled.
• TSA opens at 3:30 a.m. and closes at 11 p.m. A very late or very early connection that needs a second security check is one to check with your airline before you book.

GateCast grades your connection from A to F on how likely you are to make it. The grade is an estimate. GateCast knows which airlines you're flying but has no gate information, so check your boarding pass and add time for any second security check.

Checked 30 September 2026. Terminals, gates and airlines change, so confirm with the airport and your airline before you travel.