# A layover at Midway would be mid-way between what two airports? **URL:** \ **Category:** Factual Questions\ **Created:** [January 2, 2015, 12:19pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/a-layover-at-midway-would-be-mid-way-between-what-two-airports/708763 "2015-01-02T12:19:13Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 18\ **Page:** 1
**Author:** ![bienville](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/4bbf92/32.png) [@bienville](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/bienville)\ **Post date:** [January 2, 2015, 12:19pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/a-layover-at-midway-would-be-mid-way-between-what-two-airports/708763/1 "2015-01-02T12:19:13Z")
I had a layover at Midway this week, travelling from Philadelphia to San Diego. So, Midway really wasn’t quite mid-way. What possible combinations of origin/destination airports with a layover at Midway would actually be mid-way in journey while on a layover at Midway airport? Surely, exact answers are not possible since flight routes will vary depending on a number of circumstances. So, I’m just looking for “pretty good” answers. Also, nevermind whether or not there is currently service available between the two cities through Midway _however_ extra points will be awarded for any proposed itineraries that are actually commercially possible at this time. Boston to Denver? Pittsburgh to Minneapolis? Montreal to San Antonio? ---
**Author:** ![DrFidelius](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/drfidelius/32/3447_2.png) [@DrFidelius](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/DrFidelius)\ **Post date:** [January 2, 2015, 12:32pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/a-layover-at-midway-would-be-mid-way-between-what-two-airports/708763/2 "2015-01-02T12:32:37Z")
Since it is “about 2,800 nautical miles (5,200 km; 3,200 mi) west of San Francisco, and 2,200 nautical miles (4,100 km; 2,500 mi) east of Tokyo” (per Wikpedia) I would place it as halfway between LAX and Narita International Airport, given a few hundred miles. ---
**Author:** ![USCDiver](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/uscdiver/32/354_2.png) [@USCDiver](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/USCDiver)\ **Post date:** [January 2, 2015, 12:40pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/a-layover-at-midway-would-be-mid-way-between-what-two-airports/708763/3 "2015-01-02T12:40:02Z")
> [@DrFidelius](#): > > Since it is “about 2,800 nautical miles (5,200 km; 3,200 mi) west of San Francisco, and 2,200 nautical miles (4,100 km; 2,500 mi) east of Tokyo” (per Wikpedia) I would place it as halfway between LAX and Narita International Airport, given a few hundred miles. Midway airport is outside Chicago. ---
**Author:** ![friedo](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/f/8edcca/32.png) [@friedo](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/friedo)\ **Post date:** [January 2, 2015, 1:14pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/a-layover-at-midway-would-be-mid-way-between-what-two-airports/708763/4 "2015-01-02T13:14:24Z")
> [@DrFidelius](#): > > Since it is “about 2,800 nautical miles (5,200 km; 3,200 mi) west of San Francisco, and 2,200 nautical miles (4,100 km; 2,500 mi) east of Tokyo” (per Wikpedia) I would place it as halfway between LAX and Narita International Airport, given a few hundred miles. Airport, not Island, dude. ---
**Author:** ![DrFidelius](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/drfidelius/32/3447_2.png) [@DrFidelius](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/DrFidelius)\ **Post date:** [January 2, 2015, 1:14pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/a-layover-at-midway-would-be-mid-way-between-what-two-airports/708763/5 "2015-01-02T13:14:49Z")
> [@USCDiver](#): > > Midway airport is outside Chicago. And the planes make a Whoosh sound as they go past. ---
**Author:** ![bienville](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/4bbf92/32.png) [@bienville](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/bienville)\ **Post date:** [January 2, 2015, 1:18pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/a-layover-at-midway-would-be-mid-way-between-what-two-airports/708763/6 "2015-01-02T13:18:47Z")
> [@USCDiver](#): > > Midway airport is outside Chicago. Correct. The OP refers to MDW, Midway International Airport in Chicago, IL. Looking at the OP, it may not strictly be GQ enough for General Questions. The answers I suggested in the OP were educated guesses based on the distances and flight times given by Google Maps. I was posting in GQ thinking someone could provide a more scientific and/or a better cited factual answer. It occurs to me that there may not be a better way at approaching the question since I said “nevermind whether or not there is currently service available between the two cities through Midway” and if we’re just going to challenge ourselves to list every possible hypothetical perhaps the mods would prefer to see this in either IMHO or MPSIMS. Since commercial air travel services can change on an airline’s whims, I don’t feel inclined to remove the “nevermind if it’s available” clause. Still, perhaps we could make this a bit more GQ-worthy by having some factually answerable sub-questions, like: What are the two farthest airports that are nearly equidistant from MDW? What nearly equidistant airports most frequently require a layover at MDW? Which two nearly equidistant airports come closest to making a straight line with MDW as a point on that line? ---
**Author:** ![BubbaDog](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/bubbadog/32/333_2.png) [@BubbaDog](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/BubbaDog)\ **Post date:** [January 2, 2015, 1:49pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/a-layover-at-midway-would-be-mid-way-between-what-two-airports/708763/7 "2015-01-02T13:49:06Z")
> [@friedo](#): > > Airport, not Island, dude. Actually, Wiki article says the airport is named after the WW2 Battle over Midway Island. ---
**Author:** ![samclem](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/a9a28c/32.png) [@samclem](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/samclem)\ **Post date:** [January 2, 2015, 3:19pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/a-layover-at-midway-would-be-mid-way-between-what-two-airports/708763/8 "2015-01-02T15:19:55Z")
> [@BubbaDog](#): > > Actually, Wiki article says the airport is named after the WW2 Battle over Midway Island. Reading the _Chicago Tribune_ from 1949(when it was named), the proponents of the new name suggested “Midway” because it “is accurately descriptive of the city’s position at the hub of the Nation’s airways.” The other reason cited in the article was to honor the Battle of Midway. ---
**Author:** ![Celidin](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/cc9497/32.png) [@Celidin](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Celidin)\ **Post date:** [January 2, 2015, 3:28pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/a-layover-at-midway-would-be-mid-way-between-what-two-airports/708763/9 "2015-01-02T15:28:41Z")
Denver, CO (Denver Int’l Airport) and Trenton, NJ (Trenton-Mercer Airport) (+/- 5 mins) Denver –\> Midway - 2 hr 10 min: [Google Maps](https://goo.gl/maps/gawGx) Trenton –\> Midway - 2 hr 15 mins: [Google Maps](https://goo.gl/maps/njzwW) All are serviced by [Frontier Airlines](http://www.flyfrontier.com/). ---
**Author:** ![Pixel\_Dent](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/p/bc8723/32.png) [@Pixel\_Dent](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Pixel_Dent)\ **Post date:** [January 2, 2015, 5:53pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/a-layover-at-midway-would-be-mid-way-between-what-two-airports/708763/10 "2015-01-02T17:53:27Z")
Here’s what I did. I downloaded a spreadsheet of every airport in the world with its latitude and longitude. Then I added a column which calculated distance of each large airport from MDW using the Sperical Law of Cosines since that’s the easiest calculation in excel. I then ordered them by distance and determined the difference in distance between each pair of consecutive rows. Then I calculated the distance between each consecutive set of airports and compared that distance to their distance to Midway because you could have two airports in Florida the same distance from Midway but Midway wouldn’t be midway between them in any sense. This still isn’t perfect since the three airports could still be the three points of an equilateral triangle but that gives you something to argue about. Here are the pairs of airports where the difference in distance between them from Midway is less than 5 nautical miles and the distance between the two airports themselves is within 15% of the total distance between the two of them and Midway. South Bend Regional Airport Chicago Rockford International Airport Fort Wayne International Airport Quad City International Airport (Moline, IL) The Eastern Iowa Airport (Cedar Rapids, IA) Toledo Express Airport Rochester International Airport (Rochester, MN) Port Columbus International Airport Des Moines International Airport Cleveland Hopkins International Airport McGhee Tyson Airport (Knoxville) Chisholm Hibbing Airport (MN) Newport News Williamsburg International Airport (VA) Tinker Air Force Base (Oklahoma City) Winnipeg / James Armstrong Richardson International Airport La Guardia Airport Quebec Jean Lesage International Airport Rick Husband Amarillo International Airport Portland International Jetport Airport (Portland Maine, not Oregon) Denver International Airport Bangor International Airport Austin Bergstrom International Airport Los Angeles International Airport St. John’s International Airport Norman Manley International Airport (Kingston, Jamaica) Vancouver International Airport Keflavik International Airport (Iceland) Nuevo Aeropuerto Internacional Mariscal Sucre (Ecuador) Jorge Chavez International Airport (Lima, Peru) Newcastle Airport (GB) Ukrainka Air Base (Russia) Carrasco International /General C L Berisso Airport (Uruguay) And I think this is my favorite as they are both 3688 nm from Midway and 6300 nm apart. Dortmund Airport (Germany) Honolulu International Airport This is my favorite near miss, they’re just too close together without Midway but they are exactly the same distance from Midway to within 1/10th of a nm. I could see a flight between them going through Chicago… Akwa Ibom International Airport (Nigeria) Tokyo International Airport ---
**Author:** ![johnpost](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/j/f17d59/32.png) [@johnpost](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/johnpost)\ **Post date:** [January 2, 2015, 6:08pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/a-layover-at-midway-would-be-mid-way-between-what-two-airports/708763/11 "2015-01-02T18:08:20Z")
somebody suggested changing the name to Partway because of that problem, it didn’t get received well. ---
**Author:** ![bienville](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/4bbf92/32.png) [@bienville](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/bienville)\ **Post date:** [January 2, 2015, 10:15pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/a-layover-at-midway-would-be-mid-way-between-what-two-airports/708763/12 "2015-01-02T22:15:40Z")
Wow, **Pixel Dent** , that was amazing. I applaud you and am in awe. ---
**Author:** ![Xema](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/x/9de053/32.png) [@Xema](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Xema)\ **Post date:** [January 3, 2015, 1:04am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/a-layover-at-midway-would-be-mid-way-between-what-two-airports/708763/13 "2015-01-03T01:04:09Z")
> [@USCDiver](#): > > Midway airport is outside Chicago. So is Midway Island. (Yes, one is a bit further outside than the other.) ---
**Author:** ![Chronos](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/chronos/32/134_2.png) [@Chronos](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Chronos)\ **Post date:** [January 3, 2015, 1:09am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/a-layover-at-midway-would-be-mid-way-between-what-two-airports/708763/14 "2015-01-03T01:09:55Z")
OK, now let’s find a three-leg trip where the two layovers are at Midway, Chicago and Midway Island. ---
**Author:** ![D\_Anconia](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/67e7ee/32.png) [@D\_Anconia](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/D_Anconia)\ **Post date:** [January 3, 2015, 1:15am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/a-layover-at-midway-would-be-mid-way-between-what-two-airports/708763/15 "2015-01-03T01:15:05Z")
> [@Xema](#): > > So is Midway Island. > > (Yes, one is a bit further outside than the other.) Midway Airport is in Chicago, not outside of it. 🙂 https://maps.google.com/maps?ll=41.786776,-87.752188&z=13&cid=10847589131411345573&q=chicago%2Bmidway%2Bairport&output=embed&dg=ntvo ---
**Author:** ![LSLGuy](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/lslguy/32/5813_2.png) [@LSLGuy](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/LSLGuy)\ **Post date:** [January 3, 2015, 3:17am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/a-layover-at-midway-would-be-mid-way-between-what-two-airports/708763/16 "2015-01-03T03:17:14Z")
Excerpt: > [@Pixel\_Dent](#): > > … > Fort Wayne International Airport > Quad City International Airport (Moline, IL) > > The Eastern Iowa Airport (Cedar Rapids, IA) > Toledo Express Airport > > Rochester International Airport (Rochester, MN) > Port Columbus International Airport > > Des Moines International Airport > Cleveland Hopkins International Airport > > Portland International Jetport Airport (Portland Maine, not Oregon) > Denver International Airport > > Bangor International Airport > Austin Bergstrom International Airport That was an awesome effort. Thanks for doing the spadework for the rest of us. The ones I’ve excerpted above are plausible services one could actually buy a ticket for. ---
**Author:** ![Saintly\_Loser](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/saintly_loser/32/4045_2.png) [@Saintly\_Loser](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Saintly_Loser)\ **Post date:** [January 3, 2015, 4:00am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/a-layover-at-midway-would-be-mid-way-between-what-two-airports/708763/17 "2015-01-03T04:00:13Z")
> [@Pixel\_Dent](#): > > Here’s what I did… Awesome. Very cool. A couple of pairings intrigued or amused me – > [@](#): > > Los Angeles International Airport > St. John’s International Airport I’ve actually made that trip (assuming that’s St. John’s in Newfoundland), although I don’t remember changing planes at Midway. > [@](#): > > Keflavik International Airport (Iceland) > Nuevo Aeropuerto Internacional Mariscal Sucre (Ecuador) Has _anyone_ ever made that trip? ---
**Author:** ![pulykamell](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/pulykamell/32/3166_2.png) [@pulykamell](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/pulykamell)\ **Post date:** [January 3, 2015, 6:07am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/a-layover-at-midway-would-be-mid-way-between-what-two-airports/708763/18 "2015-01-03T06:07:36Z")
> [@Saintly\_Loser](#): > > I’ve actually made that trip (assuming that’s St. John’s in Newfoundland), although I don’t remember changing planes at Midway. Midway has very few international destinations. I believe there’s only one to Canada (to Toronto via Porter Airlines.) And there’s a handful of Mexico destinations on Volaris. Southwest goes to Punta Cana (Dominican Republic), Montego Bay (Jamaica), and Cancun (Mexico). Otherwise, the rest are domestic.