FAA orders Chicago O’Hare to reduce daily flights by more than 300

U.S. federal regulators have directed Chicago’s O’Hare International Airport to scale back its summer flight schedule by more than 300 daily departures and arrivals to help address ongoing operational challenges.

The FAA and the U.S. Department of Transportation announced Thursday (April 16) that the airport will be capped at 2,708 flights per day - down from the 3,080 flights originally planned for the summer season, reports NBC Chicago. 

Transportation Secretary Sean Duffy said the move was coordinated with airlines and is intended to improve the travel experience for passengers.

He pointed to a similar approach used at Newark airport, where cutting excess capacity and fixing technical issues helped boost on-time performance.

Applying that same strategy at O’Hare, he said, should ease delays caused by overly ambitious scheduling that exceeded what the airport could realistically handle.

According to a press release, the 3,080 flights the airport had planned to accommodate represented an increase of 14.8 per cent over summer 2025.

However, with fewer than 60 per cent of flights arriving or departing on time last summer, the FAA cited reliability concerns as a key reason for reducing the schedule.

The FAA also cited discussions between United and American Airlines over gate allocations at O’Hare, as well as a major construction project that will replace Terminal 2.

The new limitations will be in effect between May 17 and October 24, according to the FAA.