Chicago says FAA should not cut daily flights below 2,800
By David Shepardson
WASHINGTON, March 12 (Reuters) - Chicago urged the Federal Aviation Administration on Thursday not to cut flights at the city's O'Hare International Airport below 2,800 per day, saying it would be unwarranted and "lead to significant disruption to the National Airspace System."
The FAA on February 27 proposed a 2,800 daily flight limit for summer flights, down from the 3,080 daily operations announced for the summer but above last summer's 2,680 daily flights. The proposal came after the two main carriers at O'Hare - United Airlines UAL.O and American Airlines AAL.O - added significant flights as they battle to dominate the hub.
Reuters reported on March 5 that the FAA told airlines it wanted steeper cuts to around 2,500 per day, but that number remains under discussion.
Here are some details:
The FAA is expected to reconvene a schedule reduction meeting next week in a bid to finalize flight cuts
The current Chicago schedules would make 2026 the busiest summer ever at O'Hare and the FAA said the "increase is significant and would stress the runway, terminal, and air traffic control systems."
The Chicago Aviation Department said on Thursday that during last week's meetings FAA Administrator Bryan Bedford said he wanted fewer than 2,500 flights per day. The following day, the FAA then told the city it wanted 2,400. Airline officials say the number later moved to around 2,550 per day, but is still in flux.
United and American have added flights in order to qualify for more gates next year. 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.
United CEO Scott Kirby asserted this week that American would lose about $1 billion on its Chicago operations this year and suggested it added flights to counter American: "We didn't want to do it... but we couldn't lose gates."
American said in a memo this month that United's "reckless" scheduling at O'Hare will lead to "long taxi times, extensive tarmac delays, missed customer connections, disrupted crew sequencing and cascading disruptions across the system."
