Chicago Midway · MDW · the Southwest fortress · June 2026
Chicago Midway International Airport handled 19.4 million passengers in 2025 through a single terminal. Atlanta is its busiest route. Established December 12, 1927. Blindspot books its screens by the hour, priced per play.
Chicago Midway International Airport advertising spans from a few cents per play on concourse and gate screens to premium arrivals-hall LED and spectacular digital walls. On Blindspot, Chicago Midway International Airport screens are booked by the hour and priced per play, entry plays start around $0.44, with no contracts or minimums.
The smart Chicago Midway International Airport play isn't one screen for a month. It's the right screens at the right hours: the departures bank in the morning, the security and concourse dwell through the day, the arrivals halls when the long-haul flights land.
Billboard ranking points
Directional 1–10 scores based on zone type and passenger flow, not audited measurements. Every zone is bookable by the hour on the platform.
The check-in hall bridging Cicero Avenue funnels every departing traveler past premium digital media before the three concourses and their gates.
Screening is the one point all 19.4 million passengers a year pass through, in a slow, phone-down queue.
Southwest, Delta and international passengers wait out boarding dwell across the 43 gates of Concourses A, B and C.
The reclaim carousels and the arrivals corridor catch a captive, recently landed audience of Chicago and Southwest system travelers.
The CTA Orange Line platform bridged into the terminal and the taxi ranks repeat your brand on the run into the Loop.
The Midway retail and The Club MDW lounge reach a higher-spend Chicago and Southwest traveler before the flight.
The media estate · operator partners
Blindspot puts digital out-of-home (DOOH) and classic out-of-home from Chicago Midway International Airport's media owners, Clear Channel Airports, CDA airport media, JCDecaux Airport among them, onto one map, bookable by the hour. Below: real partner screens across the city's prime zones.
Imagery from media-owner/operator partners. Locations indicative; live availability and per-screen pricing show in the platform.
Formats
From a single gate screen to a full arrivals-hall takeover, Blindspot puts Chicago Midway International Airport's digital out-of-home on one map, each screen priced per play and bookable by the hour. The formats that matter airside and landside:
Large-format digital across check-in islands and departures, where every traveler dwells before security.
Captive screens along the security and passport queues, minutes of guaranteed attention per passenger.
Concourse and gate-lounge screens reaching seated, relaxed travelers with long airside dwell.
High-dwell arrivals and baggage-claim placements as passengers wait, the airport's longest captive window.
Boarding-bridge and gate-side panels in the final moment before the flight.
Iconic hall and atrium spectaculars for brand-statement reach across the whole terminal.
Location insights
Chicago Midway is the close-in gateway on the Southwest Side and the largest base in Southwest Airlines' network, the carrier that flies more than 90 percent of its traffic. A single 24-hour terminal bridges Cicero Avenue and gathers its three connected concourses A, B and C and 43 gates under one roof, so travelers walk between gates without a train. Mornings push the early Southwest banks across the country, midday holds the connecting dwell, evenings fill the arrivals halls and the CTA Orange Line platform bridged into the terminal toward the Loop and State Street. One connected terminal, one Chicago and Southwest audience. Buy the banks, not the dead hours.
Departures and check-in fill in the early-morning and late-afternoon banks. Book those hours and your frequency against business travelers climbs for the same budget.
Gates and the gate holdrooms hold seated, relaxed travelers for 60–90 minutes, long windows where dwell, not rush, does the work.
Arrivals fills as long-haul flights land in banks, high-value international passengers with time to read. Swap creative to match who just arrived.
Location intelligence summary
Chicago Midway International Airport doesn't have a rush hour; it has flight banks. Departures peak in the morning, long-haul arrivals land in waves, and between them travelers dwell for 60–90 minutes with phones often stowed. The buying model that matches that is hourly: pay for the banks when your audience is captive, skip the dead hours.
| Objective | Book these zones | Best hours |
|---|---|---|
| Brand launch / premium | Departures + Transit | All day · long-haul banks |
| Business travelers | Departures, Gates | Weekday 6–10 AM · 4–8 PM |
| Long-dwell layovers | Gates, Arrivals | 10 AM–8 PM |
| International arrivals | Arrivals, Retail | Aligned to long-haul landing banks |
| Duty-free & retail | Departures, Gates | Departures peaks |
A month-long 24/7 rotation pays for 3 AM plays nobody sees. Hourly booking concentrates the same budget into Chicago Midway International Airport’s proven peak windows, and typically saves 30%+ versus a flat four-week flight.
Security-line passengers read in seconds; gate-side travelers dwell for minutes. Run different creative by hour on the same screens, even trigger swaps on weather or live data.
Every play is logged. Blindspot campaigns report verified plays and attribution, measured against control groups, not estimated reach.
The zones above already draw a specific buyer: Loop-bound business travelers around Departures and Transit, using the CTA Orange Line's direct rail link from Midway into downtown Chicago's business core in about 20 to 25 minutes (see DOOH for B2B), and leisure and price-sensitive travelers riding Southwest Airlines, which carries more than 90% of Midway's passenger traffic and treats the airport as its largest base.
Book Chicago Midway International Airport by the hour →Cite this
Pricing · updated June 2026
Per-play prices, not CPM mysteries. Live per-screen pricing and real-time availability are on every card in the platform; the ranges below reflect typical Blindspot pricing as of June 2026.
| Format | Price per play | Typical presence | Why it works |
|---|---|---|---|
| Departures hall pillars & LED | from ~$0.44 per play | $100 buys hourly departures-hall slots | every departing traveler through the check-in hall and the three concourses |
| Gate concourse & holdroom screens | from ~$0.44 per play | $100 buys hourly holdroom slots | seated, Chicago and Southwest traveler attention before boarding |
| City transit | from ~$0.42 per play | $100 buys repeat exposure on the city link | arrivals and visitors riding the CTA Orange Line into the Loop |
| Arrivals & baggage reclaim | from ~$0.42 per play | $100 buys belt-side reclaim time | a captive, recently landed audience of Chicago and Southwest system travelers |
| Departures-hall spectacular | custom | flagship departures-hall takeover | dominant share of voice over the whole departures core |
No minimums · no contracts · pay per verified play · hourly scheduling per screen
Four things move the price on any Chicago Midway International Airport (MDW) screen: the format (pricing runs higher on departures-hall spectacular than on departures hall pillars & LED), the zone (Departures hall carries the highest footfall premium), the daypart (peak commute and evening hours price above the overnight lull), and how far in advance you book, since the busiest zones and formats sell out first.
What a campaign costs
Because you pay per play and schedule by the hour, your budget buys the exposure you actually need, not filler plays, so it works as hard on a big campaign as on a small one, with no minimum. Here's what budgets realistically buy. Live numbers per screen are in the platform.
Concourse test
The Concourse gate holdrooms across a morning Southwest departure bank
Multi-zone airport push
Departures hall, security lanes, the three concourses and the arrivals corridor together
MDW flagship takeover
Dominant share of voice across the departures core and the three concourses
FAQ
No. Blindspot books time on screens that are already installed and permitted by their media-owner operators, Clear Channel Airports, CDA airport media, JCDecaux Airport among them, so you're leasing airtime on an existing structure, not erecting a new one.
Chicago Midway International Airport handled 19.4 million passengers in 2025. The audience is the reason to buy it: air passengers are captive, comparatively affluent, and hard to reach through most channels, and they spend meaningful time in the terminal with attention to spare between check-in and boarding. Dwell is the asset. Unlike a roadside screen read in two seconds, a gate or arrivals placement gets minutes rather than moments, which is why airport placements hold up for brand and considered-purchase messages rather than short reminders. On the rail link: The CTA Orange Line serves the airport directly at Midway station, with travel time to downtown Chicago of about 20 to 25 minutes. Because the screens are bookable by the hour, you can match spend to the flight banks that carry your audience instead of paying for a flat month.
Chicago Midway International Airport zones are scored separately for visibility, dwell time and footfall, because the best placement depends on which of those you actually need. Departures hall guarantees exposure to essentially every departing passenger. Security & checkpoint holds attention through a queue, where dwell is involuntary and long. Concourse & gate holdrooms gives the longest relaxed attention, with passengers seated and waiting. Each zone shows its own per-play price and live availability, so you can pair a high-reach zone with a high-dwell one rather than guessing at a single best spot. Arrivals & baggage reclaim catches a recently landed audience with phones back out. Lounges & duty-free reaches a higher-spend traveler before the flight. The terminal layout shapes all of this: One terminal complex, completed in 2001, with 43 gates across three concourses: A (17 gates), B (23 gates), and C (3 gates).
Yes. On Blindspot every Chicago Midway International Airport screen is bookable by the hour with no minimum, so you can buy only the morning departures bank or the long-haul arrivals windows that match your audience.
The airport's media is run by operators such as Clear Channel Airports, CDA airport media, JCDecaux Airport; Blindspot aggregates the bookable digital screens onto one map, priced per play.
Often within hours: upload, pass creative pre-check, and digital screens need no printing or installation. Approval typically averages around two business days across networks.
More than the usual airport rate card suggests, because you are buying plays rather than a fixed package. In Chicago Midway International Airport a $500 budget typically funds a multi-day hourly presence across a high-dwell zone such as Concourse & gate holdrooms, or a concentrated burst on Departures hall and Security & checkpoint through the busiest departure banks only. At entry plays around $0.44, the arithmetic is visible before you commit. It will not buy a month of an arrivals-hall spectacular, and that is the trade: hourly, per-play buying lets a small budget own the specific windows when the passengers you want are actually in the terminal, instead of thinning the same money across empty overnight hours.
How to book
No sales calls, no contracts, self-serve from the map to live creative.
01
Open the map, filter Chicago Midway International Airport by zone and format, and select the exact screens and the exact hours your audience is out.
02
Every screen shows its price per play and real-time availability before you commit. Build the plan; the running total is always visible.
03
Upload creative, pass pre-check, and go live, often within hours. Track verified plays and attribution as the campaign runs.
22 million travelers. Your hour.
Pick the screens, pick the hours, see the price per play, live in hours.
