FAA moves to cap O’Hare summer flights after schedules top 3,080

The Federal Aviation Administration will ask major carriers to reduce scheduled flights at Chicago O’Hare for the 2026 summer season after finding published schedules for peak days exceed 3,080 takeoffs and landings, far above last summer’s peak of roughly 2,680, the agency says. The FAA warned that the increase “is significant and would stress the runway, terminal, and air traffic control systems at the airport.”

Agency officials plan an early-March schedule-reduction meeting with carriers and will publish related language in the Federal Register, according to multiple agency notices and industry reporting. Outlets reported the meeting as March 3 and March 4; the FAA has flagged the session as a next step in deciding whether to ask airlines for voluntary cuts or to issue a formal order afterward. WLS reported the agency “could issue a formal order” following the meeting.

The FAA has proposed a working limit of roughly 100 hourly departures and 100 hourly arrivals, a cap that would translate to about 2,800 total daily operations. The agency described current handling of approximately 100 departures and 100 arrivals per hour as manageable “given the current infrastructure and staffing resources,” but said published summer schedules would push operations beyond that threshold and into periods of concentrated congestion. The FAA also plans to identify specific 30-minute windows it considers severely congested and set targets for reductions during those periods.

The intervention responds to an aggressive summer expansion by legacy carriers at O’Hare. United Airlines told regulators it plans to add roughly 200 flights per day; Chicago Tribune reporting put United’s planned departures at about 780 a day, an increase of roughly 34 percent over last year. American Airlines plans up to about 526 daily departures, a smaller increase. American issued a public statement praising the FAA action, saying, “American commends Secretary Duffy, Administrator Bedford and the FAA for taking proactive action to ensure the operational integrity of the airfield and airspace in Chicago.” The carrier added that “The FAA now has the opportunity to achieve an improved customer experience for passengers traveling from, to, and through Chicago this summer.”

Federal officials framed the move as preemptive, citing the operational failures and schedule cuts the FAA imposed at Newark Liberty International Airport last summer. Regulators said they want to avoid a repeat at O’Hare as the airport moves toward what some industry analysts characterize as the busiest summer ever. The FAA identified the planned summer season as running March 29 through October 25.

Local authorities pushed back on the notion that O’Hare lacks capacity. The Chicago Department of Aviation said the airport is “well equipped to handle future traffic growth” and pledged to work with the federal government and carriers on a revised summer schedule. Municipal officials and airport planners are also navigating an expansion at O’Hare and an intensifying competition between United and American for gates and market share.

The dispute highlights an unresolved regulatory question: whether the FAA will secure voluntary schedule reductions through negotiation or impose binding limits that could reshape airline competition and passenger options this summer. With a Federal Register notice pending and an early-March meeting on the calendar, the coming days will determine whether the agency’s intervention becomes a temporary coordination effort or a precedent-setting enforcement action.