Air France just opened its newest lounge, and this comes as a total surprise to me, as I didn’t even realize this was under construction!
Basics of the new Air France Lounge Chicago O’Hare
On October 17, 2025, Air France opened a new lounge at Chicago O’Hare Airport (ORD), which is the first time that the SkyTeam airline has had its own lounge at the airport. The 470 square meter (5,060 square foot) lounge is located in Terminal 5, and has seating for 105 guests.
The lounge is open daily from 5AM until 11:30PM. Between the hours of 12PM and 5PM, it’s primarily open to Air France and KLM passengers, leading up to the departure of those flights. During those hours, the lounge follows standard SkyTeam lounge access requirements, and is open to SkyTeam business class passengers as well as SkyTeam Elite Plus members.
However, over other hours, the lounge acts as a contract lounge, and is even open to Priority Pass members (I’ll explain more below on why that’s extremely exciting).
Air France is really consistent with its lounge design nowadays, and here’s how the lounge’s design is described:
With its generous ceiling height, the lounge features large bay windows that provide soft, natural light throughout the day, offering an uninterrupted view of the runways. Designed by Air France teams in collaboration with the agency SGK Brandimage, the lounge reflects the world of the airline with the use of its logo, the winged seahorse – its historic symbol – and posters illustrating its rich heritage. Air France’s signature colours – shades of blue, luminous whites and touches of red – give the whole space a refined, chic atmosphere. The furniture, with its soft, enveloping lines, has been carefully selected to offer optimum comfort.
As you’d expect, the lounge has the typical Air France food and drinks, with dishes changing throughout the day, including hot and cold, and sweet and savory options. There’s also a full service bar with a variety of cocktails, champagne, French wines, and more.
While the lounge doesn’t have a La Premiere section (since Air France doesn’t offer first class to Chicago), it does have a space exclusively for Flying Blue Ultimate customers, equipped with four seats.
Why the Air France Lounge Chicago is very exciting
You might notice my enthusiasm in the headline of this post, so let me explain. Historically, Chicago O’Hare Terminal 5 has probably been the worst major international terminal in the United States when it comes to lounge options. It has historically been void of good lounge options, but that has progressively been improving.
For example, in late 2022, we saw Delta’s Sky Club open, which is also where Air France and KLM have been sending their passengers up until now. Then in late 2024, we saw LOT Polish Airlines open its lounge in the terminal, which looks great, and added some much needed capacity.
But what’s truly so exciting here is that up until now, a single Terminal 5 lounge has belonged to Priority Pass, and that’s the Swissport Lounge. I’ve long called the Swissport Lounge Chicago the worst lounge in the United States, and based on the hundreds of comments on my post about it, I’m not alone in feeling that way.
The fact that the Air France Lounge Chicago is also part of Priority Pass elevates the lounge situation in the terminal to such a high degree. There’s finally an acceptable lounge in the terminal, so as long as you’re visiting over eligible hours, this is a phenomenal development. I imagine that Air France will be printing money with this lounge, given the number of Priority Pass members traveling through the terminal who are probably desperate for a half decent facility.
Bottom line
Air France has just opened its own lounge at Chicago O’Hare, which is exciting, since I didn’t even realize this was under development. The lounge looks great, with beautiful views, and Air France also has a solid lounge soft product.
Broadly speaking, the most exciting development here is that the lounge is open to Priority Pass members over most hours, as Terminal 5 was so desperately in need of a half decent Priority Pass lounge. For that reason alone, this might just be one of the most exciting lounge openings in the United States in a long time.
What do you make of the new Air France Lounge Chicago?