By David Shepardson
WASHINGTON, Feb 27 (Reuters) – The Federal Aviation Administration plans to reduce flights at Chicago O’Hare airport this summer, saying major airlines have overscheduled flights, the agency said on Friday.
The FAA will convene a schedule reduction meeting with major airlines on March 3 after United Airlines said it plans to add about 200 flights per day and American Airlines announced a smaller increase in flights. The FAA plans to reduce flights for the summer flight season, which starts March 29 and runs through October 25.
The current schedules would make 2026 the busiest summer ever at O’Hare.
The FAA said airlines have published schedules that show more than 3,080 daily operations – takeoffs and landings – on peak days this summer, compared with 2,680 daily operations last summer. The FAA said the “increase is significant and would stress the runway, terminal, and air traffic control systems.”
The FAA said O’Hare is currently handling about 100 hourly departures and arrivals each, resulting in about 2,800 total daily operations. The agency said that is manageable “given the current infrastructure and staffing resources.”
AGENCY PROPOSES LIMIT
The agency is proposing to adopt a 2,800 per day limit throughout the season “to prevent large-scale operational disruption while also allowing air carriers to operate within the airport’s demonstrated manageable capacity.”
United plans to operate 780 flights a day from Chicago O’Hare this month, up from the 541 flights on average it operated per day last year. The carrier said it is increasing its mainline departures from O’Hare by 20% over last summer.
American Airlines said in December it would add 100 additional daily departures to more than 75 destinations from O’Hare in time for spring-break travel, which is a 30% increase in spring departures compared to 2025. Daily departures will rise from 484 last summer to 526 this summer.
American praised the FAA and Transportation Secretary Sean Duffy “for taking proactive action to ensure the operational integrity of the airfield and airspace in Chicago. The FAA now has the opportunity to achieve an improved customer experience for passengers traveling from, to, and through Chicago this summer.”
United praised the FAA and Duffy for convening the meeting. “We share their commitment to running a safe and reliable operation out of O’Hare and look forward to a collaborative discussion,” the airline said.
FAA Administrator Bryan Bedford told airlines in a closed-door meeting the agency was concerned about the ability of O’Hare to function this summer with the additional flights and noted the agency last summer convened a schedule reduction meeting and cut flights at Newark to address congestion woes.
(Reporting by David Shepardson; Editing by Deepa Babington, Rod Nickel)
