More than 720 flights canceled at O’Hare, Midway as snow flies, shutdown grinds on

Posted November 10, 2025 1:58 pm

Marni Pyke

O’Hare International Airport passengers were hit with a double whammy Monday as an early winter storm combined with fallout from the federal government shutdown roiled travel.

O’Hare delays that were averaging 32 minutes as of 8:30 a.m. shot up to 54 minutes by 4:45 p.m. Cancellations spiked from 288 to 587 over the same time frame.

Midway International Airport flyers were experiencing 28-minute delays as of later afternoon, with 134 flights canceled.

The snowstorm that hit the area Sunday night caused an overnight closure at O’Hare. By Monday morning, the storm had dumped as much as 10 inches of snow on parts of the region, though the official total at O’Hare measured 1.7 inches.

Although the U.S. Senate reached a deal Sunday to end a 40-day impasse, the federal government shutdown remained in place Monday and has been a major contributor to fewer flights and frazzled passengers. Air traffic controllers are working without pay, which has resulted in more absences, officials said.

“We are seeing signs of stress in the system, so we are proactively reducing the number of flights to make sure the American people continue to fly safely,” Federal Aviation Administrator Bryan Bedford said in a statement last week.

On Friday, a 4% cut in operations took effect. Flight reductions are scheduled to ramp up to 6% by Tuesday, 8 % by Thursday and 10% by Friday, per the FAA’s order.

“The need to cut flights only a few days before departure is enormously complex for airlines,” aviation expert and DePaul University Professor Joseph Schwieterman said. “Cutting service at one airport has ripple effects at others.”

So far, a number of major carriers have canceled shorter regional flights.

“Southwest faces a particularly large challenge since all of its planes have complex itineraries that jump from one city to another,” Schwieterman said. “You can't simply cut one flight without disrupting others departing from airports more than a thousand miles away.”