The Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) has capped daily operations at Chicago O’Hare Airport at 2,708 flights from May 17 through October 24, 2026, after concluding the airport could not handle the summer schedules airlines had filed.
The cap cuts more than 300 flights a day from peak summer plans of more than 3,080 daily arrivals and departures. The FAA took the step to head off another summer of anticipated delays and as rival carriers United Airlines and American Airlines jostle for access at one of the US’s busiest airports.
United and American have both been adding service as they compete for market share. The proposed summer schedule was 14.9% above last year’s peak-day level, a jump the FAA said the airport could not absorb with its current infrastructure and construction constraints.
The FAA said airlines will receive allocations based on their approved summer 2025 schedules rather than the larger summer 2026 schedules they filed.
The Transportation Department said O’Hare is also dealing with constrained gate capacity and ongoing taxiway closures due to ongoing construction, while the FAA said last summer fewer than 60% of arrivals and departures operated on time.
Transportation Secretary Sean Duffy said the administration was applying the same capacity approach it used at Newark Airport in 2025 to avoid a repeat of severe delays and cancellations.
American expects to trim fewer than 40 flights a day, while United is expected to cut more than 200.
Airlines that exceed the cap can face penalties of up to $75,000 per flight. The move is temporary, but it amounts to a federal check on a summer schedule fight that had been building for months at O’Hare.
