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United Airways shouldn’t be backing down in its battle with American Airways over dominance at Chicago O’Hare Worldwide Airport (ORD).
Scott Kirby, the CEO of United, instructed buyers on Wednesday that his airline has drawn a “line within the sand” over additional enlargement by American on the airport.
“We’re not going to permit them to win a single gate at our expense in 2026,” he mentioned, referring to how the Chicago Division of Aviation allocates gates at ORD. “We will add as many flights as are required to guarantee that we preserve our gate depend the identical in Chicago. We’re simply going to remain centered.”
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American misplaced 5 gates at ORD to United for a complete of 59 after they have been final reallocated in October 2025. The town allocates gates on the airport primarily based on the common variety of departures an airline operates the yr earlier than. United has 95 gates.
In 2025, American operated a mean of 412 departures a day from ORD and United 541 departures, schedule knowledge from aviation analytics agency Cirium reveals.
“Chicago is clearly a battleground,” mentioned Robert Isom, CEO of American, at an investor convention in December. “We’re simply getting again to the place we have been previous to the pandemic … that is a spot that, look, we do very, very effectively and have nice confidence that [new] capability goes to be profitably deployed.”
American plans to develop its schedule to greater than 500 departures a day in 2026, Isom added.
United expects American to regain three gates this yr primarily based on the flights the latter added in 2025. However that’s the place Kirby is drawing the metaphorical line.
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United has responded in sort to American’s ORD flight additions this yr. A day after the latter introduced new nonstops to Erie Worldwide Airport (ERI) in Pennsylvania, Lincoln Airport (LNK) in Nebraska and Tri-Cities Airport (TRI) in Tennessee in December, United unveiled the identical routes.
Hub battle: United escalates Chicago turf conflict towards American with 2 new routes
The transfer is the most recent in a bruising battle between American and United for dominance at ORD. Whereas the competitors dates to the Nineteen Eighties when legendary American CEO Robert Crandall took on United by constructing a hub at ORD, it re-ignited after Kirby joined United from American in 2016.
Because the COVID-19 pandemic, United has actively focused native company clients and launched focused advert campaigns to woo Windy Metropolis fliers.
United estimates that American misplaced $500 million at ORD in 2025, Kirby mentioned. He added that his provider made a roughly $500 million revenue on the airport.
“American, and we’re fairly good at estimating this, is prone to push to about $1 billion in losses in Chicago,” he added. “We will simply keep centered on the technique that is labored for the final decade.”
Responding to Kirby’s statements, an American spokesperson mentioned: “Whereas it is clear that one hub provider would like much less competitors at O’Hare, the inconsistent, third-party claims relating to our efficiency in Chicago are unsubstantiated … Two competing hub carriers means ORD is positioned to supply decrease fares and extra choices to journey to, from and thru Chicago. That competitors is inherently good for the Metropolis of Chicago and financial growth within the area, in addition to for customers, each in Chicago and past, and is a key contributor to O’Hare’s return to the busiest airfield within the nation in 2025.”
The American spokesperson added that the airline’s progress and funding at ORD “demonstrates our dedication to Chicago excess of exterior claims and techniques.”
Jamie Baker, an airways analyst at JP Morgan, wrote on Wednesday that he doesn’t anticipate American “to throw within the towel in Chicago any time quickly … if ever.”
Earnings from American’s AAdvantage loyalty program and its different hubs, significantly at Charlotte Douglas Worldwide Airport (CLT) and Dallas-Fort Price Worldwide Airport (DFW), Baker wrote, “offset” potential losses at ORD.
Kirby, requested broadly about whether or not airways ought to keep money-losing routes and hubs — what are euphemistically described as “strategic” in airline govt converse — mentioned no.
“A very powerful factor for a profitable industrial airline is to know when to tug out of loss-making markets,” he mentioned, additionally referring to the monetary challenges finances airways face within the U.S.
Kirby has closed not less than three airline hubs in his profession: America West Airways at John Glenn Columbus Worldwide Airport (CMH) in 2003; and US Airways at Las Vegas’ Harry Reid Worldwide Airport (LAS) in 2009 and New York’s LaGuardia Airport (LGA) in 2011, although American says as we speak that each LaGuardia and JFK work in tandem as a part of a New York hub.
United, below former CEO Jeff Smisek, closed its hub at Cleveland Hopkins Worldwide Airport (CLE) in 2014 citing monetary losses.
American has not closed a hub since merging with US Airways in 2014. Previous to that, the provider closed hubs San Juan’s Luis Muñoz Marín Worldwide Airport (SJU) in 2013, St. Louis-Lambert Worldwide Airport (STL) in 2009 and, within the Nineteen Nineties, hubs at Nashville Worldwide Airport (BNA), Raleigh-Durham Worldwide Airport (RDU) and San José Mineta Worldwide Airport (SJC) in California.
Kirby didn’t touch upon the way forward for bankrupt Spirit Airways or the proposed merger of Allegiant Air and Solar Nation Airways.
Requested for any further shade on his ORD feedback, Kirby mentioned merely: “The colour shall be [we] shall be within the black whereas American is within the pink.”
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