What FAA flight reductions could mean for O’Hare passengers

Stressed that your dream vacation flight on United Airlines will be canceled as the government cracks down on summer overscheduling at O’Hare International Airport?

Don’t be, United Executive Vice President of Communications and Advertising Josh Earnest said during a media roundtable Tuesday.

“In the event that there are changes to the schedule, we’ll have lots and lots of options to reaccommodate people,” he explained.

The Federal Aviation Administration is calling on airlines to reduce operations at O’Hare after determining that a spike in flights led by United and American airlines “will exceed the airport’s capacity.”

In summer 2025, O’Hare topped out at 2,680 operations a day. The 2026 schedule was set to exceed 3,080 operations on peak days.

The surge coupled with construction of a new concourse could strain the system, and the FAA is seeking to downsize to between 2,500 and 2,800 arrivals and departures.

The agency hasn’t revealed the exact numbers yet, but it’s likely “80% of the flights are going to be unaffected,” Earnest noted.

“It’s a haircut, it’s not a trim,” Vice President of O’Hare Omar Idris said.

What will be fraught for carriers are upcoming closed-door meetings with the FAA when stakeholders hash out how many flights are cut per half-hour and per airline. Talks that kicked off last week should resume shortly.

The FAA follows a strict process that could involve reducing flights on a proportional basis among airlines.

“The government is trying to do the right thing,” United Senior Vice President of Global Network Planning Patrick Quayle said.

But United leaders hope regulators will also consider the number of gates allotted to each airline, a sore point with competitor American Airlines.

Last year, the Chicago Department of Aviation updated its gate distribution at O’Hare, which is based on flight activity.

United gained five gates while American lost four. As a result, American filed a lawsuit and picked up two extra gates from Spirit Airlines.

The rivals also pumped up 2026 summer flights with United providing 750 daily departures compared to an average of 541 in 2025, while American scheduled 526 departures versus about 480 last year.

United executives said the airline has stayed committed to Chicago and O’Hare throughout the pandemic while American pulled back to Sun Belt cities.

“Those five gates were earned,” Quayle said. “We got them in October so we’re now flying a larger schedule. We won five gates, so we should have more total departures throughout the day.”

In late December, “American realized that they had neglected O’Hare,” Earnest commented.

American leaders responded the carrier “has been doing exactly what it said it would do — methodically and responsibly rebuilding its capacity at O’Hare. And as of about six weeks ago, we were on track for a reasonable, albeit busy summer,” a spokesperson noted.

“United and its senior executives have been extraordinarily candid … that their intention is to force American to de-hub in Chicago — most recently calling American’s hub at O’Hare ‘temporary.’ And to that end, United callously added 200 peak day departures — a 34% increase from last summer.”

Airfield construction

United experts also gave an update on the impact of new construction at O’Hare, another reason the FAA intervened.

In August 2025, the city broke ground on Concourse D located on the southwest end of the airfield, which impacted some taxiways.

When work ramped up in October, “we saw an increase in taxi times for all carriers across the board,” Idris said. The time it took to reach gates grew from 12 to 14 minutes to 23 to 24 minutes, he added.

“That put pressure on the ground control … it put pressure on our customers making connections, it put pressure on us operationally.”

With ample runways, O’Hare has a top arrival rate, but “when you take a big chunk of the airfield out … it makes it very hard for aircraft to move efficiently,” Idris noted. “And suddenly, you have to be mindful, are you competitive with other locations?”

He noted that one taxiway will be back online in midsummer. “That gives us some good capabilities and those taxi times should then drop.”