By David Shepardson
WASHINGTON, March 5 (Reuters) – The Federal Aviation Administration told airlines it wants to cut a few hundred additional daily flights at Chicago O’Hare airport this summer over what it initially outlined last week, sources told Reuters on Thursday.
Last week, the FAA proposed a 2,800 per day limit, down from the 3,080 daily operations announced for the summer, but above last summer’s 2,680 daily flights, citing concerns about delays and airline overscheduling. The FAA told airlines this week it wants to limit flights to around 2,500 per day, but that number remains under discussion, the sources added.
The FAA, which held an initial schedule-reduction meeting on Wednesday with senior executives at United, American and other carriers, is expected to hold another meeting next week. The FAA told airlines it believes more cuts are needed to ensure flights are not disrupted.
The current schedules would make 2026 the busiest summer ever at O’Hare. The FAA said last week the “increase is significant and would stress the runway, terminal, and air traffic control systems.”
The FAA, United and American declined to comment on the discussions.
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. 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 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 told employees this week 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.”
United said last week it appreciated the FAA and the Transportation Department convening the meeting and shared “their commitment to running a safe and reliable operation” at O’Hare.
The FAA plans to reduce flights for the summer flight season, which starts March 29 and runs through October 25.
(Reporting by David Shepardson; Editing by Chris Reese and David Gregorio)
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