Midway Airlines was a United States airline founded on August 6, 1976, by investor Kenneth t. Carlson and joined by Irving T. Tague and William B. Owens in an October 13, 1976, filing with the Civil Aeronautics Board (CA) for an airline operating certificate. Although it received its operating certificate from the CAB prior to the passage of the Airline Deregulation Act in 1978, it is widely recognized as the first post-deregulation start-up. The airline commenced operations on October 31, 1979.

The airline was intended to breathe new life into Chicago Midway International Airport, then called Chicago Midway Airport, which had lost most of its scheduled flights to O'Hare International Airport. Midway Airlines and the revitalized airport were advertised as a trouble-free alternative to O'Hare, and both of these spurred re-development and growth on Chicago's South Side. The airport was billed as a convenient ten- to fifteen-minute drive from downtown Chicago.

Following the Airline Deregulation Act of 1978, Midway first emerged as a discount carrier. It was noted for its low fares and ease of connections at Midway Airport. The airline purchased three Douglas DC-9s from Trans World Airlines and began service on October 31, 1979, flying to Cleveland, Ohio′s Cleveland Burke Lakefront Airport, Kansas City, Missouri, and Detroit, Michigan. The scheduled service was an instant success. In 1980, Midway bought five more DC-9s and added flights to St. Louis, Missouri, New York City′s La Guardia Airport, and Washington National Airport in Arlington, Virginia, outside Washington, D.C.; it also shifted its Cleveland service to Cleveland Hopkins International Airport. The airline also briefly served Minneapolis, Minnesota, but dropped this service shortly after it began.

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