FAA to resume hearing Thursday on plan to reduce flights at Chicago O'Hare

By David Shepardson

WASHINGTON, March 16 (Reuters) - The Federal Aviation Administration on Monday said it will resume a meeting on Thursday with airlines to cut flights at Chicago O'Hare International Airport.

The FAA said it wants to cut flights this summer to 2,608 per day after last month proposing a 2,800 daily flight limit for summer flights.

The proposed figure is significantly below the 3,080 daily flights scheduled by airlines this summer. Last summer, airlines operated an average of 2,680 daily flights at O'Hare. The agency warned of major disruptions without flight cuts.

The proposal came after the two ​main carriers at O'Hare, United Airlines UAL.O and American Airlines AAL.O, added significant numbers of flights as they battle ​to dominate the hub.

The FAA first convened a meeting to cut the schedules on March 4 but then adjourned it.

The agency said Monday it wants roughly a 400-flight reduction from carriers' summer plans and intends to reduce each airline's flights proportionally based on last summer's schedule to ensure the "burden of delay reduction is shared across users without picking 'winners or losers.'"

Last week, the city of Chicago urged the FAA not to cut flights below 2,800 per day, saying ​it would be unwarranted.

The current Chicago schedules would make 2026 the busiest summer ever at O'Hare.

United plans to operate 780 flights a day from Chicago O'Hare this month, up from the 541 flights ​on average per day ​last year.

American said ⁠in December it would add 100 daily departures to more than 75 destinations from O'Hare in time for spring-break travel, 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 for working ​to address operational delays ​and ​impacts ​to protect O'Hare travelers this summer.