United fiercely pushed back on the FAA for unfairly picking “winners and losers” at Chicago O’Hare before the agency mandated a capacity-limitation aimed at easing congestion.
United Airlines decried the Federal Aviation Administration’s proposal to cap the number of daily flights at Chicago O’Hare International airport this summer as “severe prejudice” that would result in “widespread and unnecessary flight cancellations” – along with providing rival American Airlines a more favourable competitive position at the critical Midwest hub.
The FAA has since implemented the caps at O’Hare, releasing an order on 16 April that limits the airport to 2,708 daily flights through 24 October.
“The proposal improperly picks winners and losers among competitors, is not rationally calculated to achieve the agency’s own goals and ignores superior alternatives,” United said in a filing with the US Department of Transportation (DOT) submitted last month and released by regulators on 17 April.
United further described the FAA’s move to limit O’Hare’s capacity as “arbitrary and capricious”.
United says on 17 April that it is still reviewing the FAA’s order and withholds comment until that process is complete.
While commending the efforts of FAA Administrator Bryan Bedford and US Transportation Secretary to resolve increasing congestion issues at Chicago’s largest hub, United’s comments last month are eyebrow-raising in the extent to which they blasted the FAA’s decision-making process.
The carrier argued that the FAA’s schedule reductions at O’Hare would not account for “significant changes that have impacted airlines’ 2026 capacity – namely, the reallocation of gates in October 2025 through a competitive, contracted-for process”. United suggested that the civil aviation regulator failed to engage in “even the minimal level of analysis” and made a “clear error of judgement”.
The move, it said, would result in less-efficient use of O’Hare’s existing capacity and thousands of flight cancellations that would “disrupt the summer travel plans of millions of Americans and leave dozens of Midwestern communities without a connection to [O’Hare]”.
The FAA’s capacity cap is intended to head off widespread delays this summer as American and United have engaged in an escalating turf war at O’Hare that has been among the most dramatic recent developments in the US airline sector. The FAA took action after both carriers released summer schedules that would outpace last year’s capacity levels at the Midwest hub.
The FAA warned that the schedules would push the airport beyond its daily capacity throughout the summer air travel season, pointing to “current factors such as airport construction and competitive scheduling dynamics occurring between the two largest carriers at the airport”.
The cap at 2,708 flights will leave O’Hare with roughly the same number of flights airlines operated there last summer.
American says that the daily flight cap will affect its competitor more acutely in a recent memo to employees provided to FlightGlobal.
“While we expect there will still be challenges to address at [O’Hare], most of United’s frivolous schedule will be pulled down,” American says. “Our initial assessment is United will be forced to cut in excess of 200 departures and arrivals during peak times. American will cut no more than 40 arrivals and departures based on previously published schedules.”
American adds that it is “pleased to have secured a sufficient level of flights through the FAA’s process to operate a successful hub at O’Hare this summer and satisfy American’s strategic objectives”.
“Once implemented, the FAA’s action will improve reliability and reduce delays for customers travelling from, to and through O’Hare this summer, and ensure Chicago O’Hare retains its
CLASH OVER GATES
In its comments to the DOT last month, United maintained that the FAA had decided to cap the number of daily summertime flights at O’Hare “well below” levels already flown during the spring of 2026. It added that gate allocations would be assigned based on the share of total flights provided at O’Hare last summer.
“For example, if an airline provided 25% of all flight operations in the summer of 2025, it will now be entitled to 25% of the allowed flights in the summer of 2026 without any regard to the changed gate-space allocation among airlines,” United said. “It appears DOT/FAA intends to completely ignore that some airline gained gates and therefore gained flight capacity while others lost gates and therefore lost flight capacity. That is a problem.”
United said that it had planned and sold additional flights based on the addition of five O’Hare gates since last summer, which it now must cancel. Additionally, it had hired thousands of employees and acquired additional aircraft to meet its capacity projections.
“The resulting prejudice to United in 2026 alone will be immense,” the airline said, adding that the follow-on effects will cascade into next year, as future gate-allocation decisions will be based off current proportions.
The most “common sense” solution, according to United, would include basing gate allocations at O’Hare off American and United’s previously proposed schedules for summer 2026.
Notably, multiple recent reports have suggested that United chief executive Scott Kirby is pursuing an audacious acquisition of American – an idea Kirby has reportedly floated to US President Donald Trump. Such a deal would create the world’s largest airline by far, with a near-majority share of the domestic market and a dominant international position. It appears unlikely due to probable intervention from anti-trust regulators, even considering the Trump administration’s loose stance on industrial consolidation.
American itself publicly rejected the idea on 17 April, citing anti-competition concerns.
FlightGlobal Aerospace Editor Jon Hemmerdinger contributed to this report.
The post ‘Severe prejudice’: United blasted FAA’s proposal of now-mandated O’Hare flight cap first appeared on FlightGlobal.