Great-circle route SFO ↔ MDW. Faint dots are other airports, for geographic context. Download this map — free to reuse with a link back to this page.
Frequencies below are per direction, from our most recent schedule sample. The two directions are not identical — that is normal on scheduled routes.
| Direction | Frequency | Days | Airlines |
|---|---|---|---|
| SFO → MDW San Francisco to Chicago |
14/wk | Daily | Southwest Airlines |
| MDW → SFO Chicago to San Francisco |
13/wk | Daily | Southwest Airlines |
Where a direction shows “—” we track it as an operating nonstop but hold no schedule sample for it — we would rather show nothing than guess.
In 2025, airlines reported 97,750 passengers on 666 flights between SFO and MDW — about 268 a day — filling 89% of the 110,054 seats flown. Southwest Airlines Co. carried the most passengers (100%).
Source: US DOT T-100 segment reports — actual airline-reported traffic, scheduled service only, both directions combined. Cargo and charter flights excluded.
Southwest Airlines is the only airline flying the SFO–MDW nonstop.
Recent scheduled departures on this route have used the Boeing 737-800, Boeing 737.
Aircraft assignments change by season and by time of day.
On a long east–west route like this one the two directions do not take the same time. Aircraft flying eastbound ride the mid-latitude jet stream and typically arrive earlier than the westbound leg, which flies into it. The difference is commonly 30 to 90 minutes on transatlantic and transpacific flights, and it varies by season. The estimate above does not model wind — treat it as a midpoint and check the airline's own timetable for the block time on your date.
The distance between San Francisco International Airport and Chicago Midway International Airport is 1,850 miles, or 2,977 kilometres.
| Great-circle distance | 1,850 mi |
| Kilometres | 2,977 km |
| Nautical miles | 1,608 nmi |
Measured airport to airport. The actual track is longer — aircraft follow airways, avoid restricted airspace and route around weather.
Yes. Southwest Airlines flies the route nonstop, with about 27 departures a week across both directions. The route is in our live nonstop dataset, last seeded 2026-07-07.
About 4h 10m in the air. That is a great-circle estimate from the 1,850-mile distance, not a scheduled block time — an airline's published time will differ by roughly 15 to 45 minutes depending on routing, winds and taxi.
About 14 a week from San Francisco to Chicago and 13 a week from Chicago to San Francisco, from our most recent schedule sample.
Southwest Airlines.
In 2025, airlines reported 97,750 passengers on 666 scheduled flights between SFO and MDW — about 268 a day — filling 89% of the seats flown. Source: US DOT T-100 segment reports, both directions combined.
Recent scheduled departures have used the Boeing 737-800, Boeing 737. Assignments change by season and by time of day.
