Southwest Airlines Announces Major Change for Illinois Travelers

'Tis the season to start planning summer vacations, and if you live in Illinois and often choose Southwest Airlines for your travel needs, brace yourself for some disappointing news.

Summer Travel Plans

Like many other people this time of the year, I am deep in the trenches of researching fun summer vacation ideas for my family. Typically, we spend most of our free time during the summer floating in our pool or at my family's lake house in Wisconsin, but this summer I'd like to switch things up a bit.

READ MORE: These Illinois Hail Photos Are Almost Unbelievable

We've only taken our kids on a couple trips that involve air travel, and finding affordable flights is our number one priority. Typically, we look for flights out of Chicago O'Hare International Airport but I just stumbled across some major travel news that will affect a lot of Illinois families this summer.

Major Announcement From Southwest Airlines

Over the last few years, Southwest Airlines has made some major changes to its boarding, bag, and seating arrangement policies, and on Friday, March 13, 2026, they dropped another big one:  they are discontinuing service to Chicago O'Hare International Airport effective June 4.

A spokesperson for Southwest Airlines told NBC Chicago:

Operating at Chicago O’Hare continues to be challenging, and we are confident we can serve Chicagoland through Chicago Midway. Our robust service from our longtime base at Midway will continue to serve more than 80 destinations, including the 15 markets we served from O’Hare. Southwest remains committed to providing its signature hospitality to our Customers in Chicagoland.

Does it make you feel better that Southwest will still fly out of Midway? I'm not thrilled.