Feb. 15--It's one of the shortest routes flying into Chicago.
But no route in the nation is more frequently delayed by bad weather than the short hop from South Bend International Airport to O'Hare International Airport.
The 50-minute flight is delayed 187 times a year on average, according to an analysis of Bureau of Transportation Statistics data by Stratos Jet Charters.
Four other routes into O'Hare are also among the top 20 most frequently delayed. Around 145 flights a year from Eppley Airfield in Omaha, Neb., into O'Hare are delayed; as are around 141 from McGhee Tyson Airport in Alcoa, Tenn.; 121 flights from Yeager Airport in Charleston, W.Va.; and 117 from Baltimore-Washington International Thurgood Marshall Airport.
Chicago unveiled a deal last month to build a sixth runway at O'Hare that it said would help reduce weather-related delays at the airport, which has a long and unwanted position of being among the nation's worst airports for delays.
But according to the data compiled by Stratos, O'Hare is also among the top recipients of flights diverted from other airports. It receives around 205 diverted flights a year on average, making it the eighth busiest airport for diversions in the nation. Austin-Bergstrom International Airport in Texas tops that ranking with 333 diverted flights a year.
kjanssen@tribpub.com
