A worker guides a United Airlines Boeing 787 as it is towed at O’Hare Airport in October 2025. (Photo by Dominic Di Palermo)
TNS
United Airlines took a big step in the battle with American for dominance at Chicago O’Hare International Airport, saying it will boost its summer departures schedule to 750, a record for the airport.
United’s Chicago hub will become the world’s third largest single airline hub, behind only Atlanta and Dallas, each with about 950 daily departures, and ahead of Charlotte with about 650 daily departures. United averaged 541 daily departures from O’Hare in 2025
This summer, United will have 170 more daily departures than it did in 2025, and 200 more daily departures than American, Patrick Quayle, Senior Vice President, Global Network Planning and Alliances, told reporters on a Monday afternoon call.
Under its summer schedule, United will fly nonstop from ORD to 222 destinations, including 47 international and 175 in the U.S. On Monday the carrier announced five new Midwest destinations, all with four daily departures from ORD. The cities are Bloomington/Normal and Champaign/Urbana in Illinois; Kalamazoo and Lansing in Michigan and La Crosse, Wis. The flights will all be operated with 50-seat jets and will start between April 30 and May 7.
Asked how American might respond, Quayle said “This is a long plan we’ve been working on. I’m not focused on what the other airline thinks.” American executives are likely to be asked about latest expansion on the carrier’s earnings call at 8:30 a.m. this morning. They will also be asked about United CEO Scott Kirby’s assertion, on United’s earnings call last week, that American lost $500 million at O’Hare in 2025 and will lose $1 billion at the airport this year.
Kirby said United made about $500 million at the airport in 2025, and would have made $600 million without American’s O’Hare buildup.
Quayle said that among passengers originating in Chicago, United gets 50% while American gets 31%. Among corporate travelers, United gets 65% while American gets 27%, he said.
In terms of revenue per available seat mile, United leads American by 14%, he said. Furthermore, American announced 100 more flights on Dec. 26th, allowing just a 40-day booking window, meaning that revenue per seat mile will likely be reduced at first. As for cost per available seat mile, he said that American’s is likely higher than United’s because American flies more regional jets.
Although Chicago O’Hare allocates gates based on the number of departures in the previous year, Josh Earnest, United executive vice president for communications, said on the call that “While we want to be sure we have enough gates, gates is an input, not a goal.”
On the carrier’s Jan. 21st earnings call, Kirby said “In 2026, we’re drawing a line in the sand. We are not going to allow them to win a single gate at our expense in 2026,” referring to American.
O’Hare is already tightly scheduled. As a result, United cannot add flights between 9 a.m. and 5 p.m. Quayle said. Instead, it will make additions at less busy times early in the morning and later at night, including a new 10:25 p.m. bank of flights. That will increase the number of United flight banks to ten from nine.
Quayle said that partially because of new restrictions on Newark flying, United will have aircraft available. Referring to a Newark-Syracuse flight that is being cancelled, he said that 95% of the passengers are connecting and can be served just as well with a connection at Dulles. Besides, he said, Newark-Syracuse loses money.
While O’Hare will be United’s biggest hub, Quayle said United does not aspire to operate hubs as big as Atlanta and Dallas. He said competitors focus more on their hubs in Atlanta, Charlotte and Dallas, and less on their other hubs, while United prefers to have more “interplay” between its three big hubs in Chicago, Denver and Houston. The Denver hub has about 550 daily departures while Houston has about 450.