The Federal Aviation Administration has ordered flight cuts at O’Hare International Airport this summer amid an ongoing turf war between United and American Airlines, both of which have planned significant increases in flights at the airport this summer.
In an order posted Thursday, the FAA capped daily operations at O’Hare to just over 2,700 takeoffs and landings per day between May 17 and Oct. 24. On peak days this summer, the cap will result in just under 400 fewer operations than airlines had planned at the airport.
The order comes as O’Hare’s two dominant airlines, United and American, ramped up planned flights out of Chicago as they compete over gate space at the airport, which is allocated based on how much the airline flew the previous year.
The FAA in February warned it was coming in to break up the party, citing more than 3,000 planned operations on peak days this coming summer, compared with operations last summer which peaked around 2,680 per day.
This summer’s planned flying schedule would “stress the runway, terminal and air traffic control systems,” at O’Hare, the FAA said.
The feds initially suggested a flight cap of about 2,800 per day. Later in the process — which involved schedule reduction meetings with airlines and Chicago’s Aviation Department — the FAA warned it might have to cut operations even further, possibly to as few as 2,400 per day, according to the city.
Chicago’s Department of Aviation, which runs O’Hare and Midway airports, bristled at that proposal, calling it “regressive.” City officials have repeatedly pointed to O’Hare’s busyness — it was the busiest airfield in the country last year, although Atlanta’s Hartsfield-Jackson beat it out when it came to passenger traffic — as a point of pride.
In the end, the feds ended up somewhere in between. The FAA order stipulates that airlines will be allocated flights based on their schedules during the summer of 2025.
The city’s Aviation Department said in a statement it appreciated the FAA’s “thoughtful approach” to flight reductions “ensuring they do not extend beyond summer 2026 and do not fall below 2025 actual operations.”
The CDA said it was “committed to preserving O’Hare’s status as the world’s busiest airport by aircraft operations and the nation’s leading dual-hub airport” and that the department and Chicago Mayor Brandon Johnson would “continue to advocate for strong competition among O’Hare’s hub carriers” as well as more federal investment in air traffic control staffing.
United previously said it planned to offer about 34% more O’Hare departures this summer compared with last, while American planned an increase in departures of about 10%.
In a note to employees Thursday, executives at American estimated United would need to cut significantly more flights than American. The letter estimated United would have to cut more than 200 takeoffs and landings at peak times this summer, while American would need to cut no more than 40.
A spokesperson for United did not immediately comment on American’s estimate.
The feds’ order, issued by FAA administrator Bryan Bedford, touches on the ongoing turf war between the airlines and notes that United had opposed the use of the summer 2025 baseline.
Bedford’s order said United had suggested alternatives to using the summer 2025 baseline, such as adjusting each airlines’ share of reductions to account for changes made in the gate reallocation process. United gained gates
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in last year’s reallocation.Bedford’s order said the decision to use the summer 2025 schedules as a baseline “returns to a time when the schedules were not heavily influenced by air carrier attempts to increase market share.”
“American and United have each announced expansion plans at ORD that potentially could lead to significant Summer 2026 delays due to ongoing construction limiting the airfield’s ability to handle the expected amount of traffic,” the order said.
The feds specifically point to United’s schedule increases as “the most significant,” and noted that that increase had been “accompanied by a campaign of public statements expressing a desire to grow and avoid a scenario in which American Airlines would grow at the ‘expense’ of United.”
It was not immediately clear how the airlines would decide which flights to cut.
In a statement, United thanked federal officials “for leading the process to find a solution that makes sense for everyone who cares about O’Hare’s success.” United said it was reviewing the order and “will share additional information, including any next steps, as soon as our review is complete.”
American said it was “pleased to have secured a sufficient level of flights through the FAA’s process to operate a successful hub at O’Hare this summer and satisfy American’s strategic objectives.”
American praised the FAA’s order, saying it would “improve reliability and reduce delays for customers traveling from, to and through O’Hare this summer, and ensure Chicago O’Hare retains its longstanding dual-hub structure.”
The FAA order comes shortly after Reuters and Bloomberg reported that United CEO Scott Kirby had floated a potential merger with American in a meeting with President Donald Trump earlier this year.
Both airlines declined to comment on the issue of the merger, which would create the largest airline in the world and is considered a long shot by aviation and antitrust experts.