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 and American Airlines – 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 reductionmeeting next week in a bid to finalize flight cuts * The current Chicago schedules would make 2026 the busiestsummer ever at O’Hare and the FAA said the “increase ​issignificant and would stress the runway, terminal, and airtraffic control systems.” * The Chicago Aviation Department said on Thursday thatduring last week’s meetings FAA Administrator Bryan Bedford saidhe wanted fewer than 2,500 flights per day. The following day,the FAA then told the city it wanted 2,400. Airline officialssay the number later moved to around 2,550 per day, but is stillin flux. * United and American have added flights in order to qualifyfor more gates next year. United plans to operate 780 flights aday ‌from ⁠Chicago O’Hare this month, up from the 541 flights onaverage per day last year. * American said in December it would add 100 dailydepartures to more ​than 75 destinations from ​O’Hare in timefor ⁠spring-break travel, a 30% increase in spring departurescompared to 2025. Daily departures will rise from 484 lastsummer to 526 this ​summer. * United CEO Scott Kirby asserted this week that Americanwould lose about $1 billion on its Chicago operations this yearand suggested it added flights to counter American: “We didn’twant 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, disruptedcrew sequencing and cascading disruptions across the system.”

(Reporting by David Shepardson; Editing by Mark Porter and Jamie Freed)