Chicago flight delays, cancelations continue at O'Hare Airport

CHICAGO - Chicago’s O’Hare International Airport is playing catchup after having the worst delays in the country over the weekend.

On Sunday at O’Hare, there were nearly 1,200 delays and another 280 canceled flights. On Monday, there were at least 300 cancelations by evening.

A local transportation expert says the mess at Chicago’s airports the past few days has been mainly weather related, but due to staffing shortages, one bad storm unnecessarily knocks the whole system into turmoil.

"You take what we had at O’Hare Sunday — rain, flash floods — and the whole system starts to unravel," said DePaul University Professor Joe Schwieterman, who adds airlines have picked up the pace from this summer.

In June, seven to eight percent of all flights were canceled, he says, to now only about three percent.

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Flyers that FOX 32 Chicago spoke to were doing a lot of finger crossing Monday afternoon.

"Today we have a lot of delays and our gates have changed a lot, so it's little up in the air but hopefully it will be fine," Justin said.

"It's been crazy. We came from Amsterdam and it's been one-hour line after the other. Think we went through four of them," Betty said.

O’Hare is not the only problem child. Midway saw 112 cancelations on Sunday.

Advice for travelers? Come up with a Plan B, so if your flight is canceled, it's a little less stressful.

Otherwise, pack snacks and plan on staying at the airport a little longer than expected.