‘Food, football and family:’ Travelers surge into O’Hare for expected busiest Thanksgiving ever
More than 1.6 million people will surge through O’Hare International Airport over the Thanksgiving holiday, but Robert and Sandra Schneider had eyes for just two Wednesday.
The Lake Villa residents waited Wednesday morning in Terminal 3 for their son, Nicholas, and his girlfriend, Gissele Duarte. With them was daughter Morgan, who arrived Tuesday after driving from Ontario, Canada.
“It’s always better when they’re both home,” Sandra Schneider said of her kids.
Adding to the excitement was the fact it was the first time the family was meeting Duarte. The couple, both graduate students, flew in from Utah.
It’s not always a given their grownup children can make the trip, so “we love it. Every year we can have people come is great for us,” Robert Schneider said.
Theirs was one of thousands of Thanksgiving reunions Wednesday at O’Hare, which is projected to break previous records for flyers this holiday.
Nicholas Schneider’s flight was on time but other travelers weren’t as lucky, with 50 cancellations and 1,109 delays at O’Hare over 24 hours as of 3:30 p.m. Wednesday. At Midway International Airport, 55 flights were delayed and two canceled.
High winds roiled the Chicago area and wintry conditions were forecast for parts of Wisconsin and Michigan.
The biggest crowds are expected Sunday, when about 290,000 passengers should pass through O’Hare and another 60,000 at Midway.
Two-year-old Jaxon Labonte had a bird’s-eye view of the arrivals level atop the shoulders of his dad, Jim.
Jim, a Lombard native, had a smooth flight from Dallas that wasn’t impacted by blustery weather. But “hopefully, he’ll get to experience the snow (forecast for) Saturday,” Labonte said of Jaxon.
The family will gather with relatives for a big feast at Labonte’s aunt’s house in the suburbs Thursday.
He’s anticipating a day of “food and football,” plus “catching up with family and a lot of friends that I grew up with,” the Montini Catholic High School alumnus said.
Karen and Michael Browne’s plane landed at O’Hare on time, but it took about 30 minutes to reach a gate. The Rogers, Arkansas, couple rolled with it, as did their dog, Charlotte.
“We’re bringing her because all of our kids are flying in and they miss the puppy,” Karen Browne said with a big smile. The next stop was Lincoln Park, where their daughter lives.
Being together at Thanksgiving, “means a lot,” she said. “My daughter’s just found out she’s pregnant, so we’re very excited to be grandparents. It’s the only time I’m going to get all my adult kids together for the rest of this year. It’s very special.”
The Chicago Department of Aviation exhorted passengers to arrive early with nearly 2 million people coursing through both airports between Tuesday and Dec. 1.
O’Hare’s numbers are expected to surpass 2024 tallies by 9.5%, which will mean “likely the busiest Thanksgiving travel week in the airport’s 70-year history,” CDA officials said.
Midway will accommodate about 350,000 flyers, an increase of 1.5% from last year.
O’Hare already hit a high this summer with more than 24 million travelers between June 1 and Aug. 31.