American Airlines to boost Chicago O'Hare operations

American Airlines will boost its year-over-year flying from Chicago O'Hare by 30% during peak spring break days.

The airline said its busiest March days will have 500-plus departures out of O'Hare, an increase of approximately 100 flights. There will be service increases to some 75 destinations, including Las Vegas, San Francisco, Boston, Savannah and Florida destinations Sarasota, Fort Myers, Orlando and Panama City. 

"We're committed to rebuilding our Chicago hub to be stronger and more compelling for our customers," said Steve Johnson, American's chief strategy officer.

With the expansion, American is closing the gap with United, which also operates an O'Hare hub. American has fallen behind United, which built back much more aggressively at O'Hare in the years after the pandemic.

Last year, American offered 24.3% fewer O'Hare seats than in 2019, while United flew 99.2% of its 2019 seat count, according to Cirium data.

United's position at O'Hare got a further boost this year when the Chicago Department of Aviation awarded the airline five additional gates while taking gates from American under a formula based upon gate usage. The additional gates have enabled United to announced 13 domestic route launches or resumptions from O'Hare since October.

United plans nearly 650 daily departures from O'Hare during peak periods of next summer. 

American made a substantial reengagement at O'Hare this year, growing its summer flight schedule by 20% year over year. American operated 84,500 O'Hare flights from June through August, while United operated 103,800 flights. 

This coming March, American is scheduled to offer 17.1% fewer departures than United at O'Hare, Cirium data shows. But it will have closed the gap considerably from March 2025, when it offered 31.9% fewer departures.