Facing pressure in Chicago, American touts O'Hare growth

American Airlines wants you to know it is committed to Chicago.

Asked at an investor conference on Thursday about the carrier's plans in the Windy City, Chief Financial Officer Devon May emphasized Chicago's importance to American. Chicago's O'Hare International Airport (ORD) was — and is — its third-largest hub, he said repeatedly.

Up until 2020 and the COVID-19 pandemic, the carrier operated some 500 daily departures out of the Midwest airport.

"This year, we're growing back Chicago," May said. "We have a huge customer base there… [and] we feel really good about the growth opportunities."

American recently unveiled seven new or returning routes from Chicago O'Hare, including to Curacao International Airport (CUR), Roanoke-Blacksburg Regional Airport (ROA) in Virginia, and St. Maarten's Princess Juliana International Airport (SXM). That's on top of long-haul additions this summer like Naples International Airport (NAP) in Italy.

The airline will operate an average of 468 daily departures from O'Hare in June, July and August, schedule data from aviation analytics firm Cirium shows.

A longtime hub

American has long boasted a hub at O'Hare. Since the early 1980s, it has competed fiercely with hometown United Airlines for dominance at the airport (and in the city), including playing a prominent role in the iconic Chicago holiday movie, Home Alone.

But recent months have seen the airline's executives be especially vocal about the its Chicago presence — it was a prominent topic on the carrier's most recent earnings call.

Prior to the pandemic, American was focused on growing three hubs, none of which were O'Hare.

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Charlotte Douglas International Airport (CLT), Dallas-Fort Worth International Airport (DFW) — remember "DFW 900" and "Charlotte 700 plus"? — and Ronald Reagan Washington National Airport (DCA) were, as executives said at the time, the airline's most profitable bases. Growth in those cities would benefit the entire airline more than adding flights elsewhere, the thinking went.

Rarely did American executives mention Chicago in those pre-pandemic days.

Fighting back

Now, though, American faces a physical threat at O'Hare: it could lose up to six gates later this year under the terms of an agreement it signed with the Chicago Department of Aviation in 2018. That agreement, which United also signed, distributes gates based primarily on departures during the prior year.

That means American's gate count at O'Hare in 2026 could be set by its schedule in 2024. Cirium schedules show it flew an average of 349 daily departures last year, and 388 departures during the peak summer months of June, July and August. For comparison, United flew an average of 481 daily departures from O'Hare in 2024, and 496 departures during the summer months of June, July and August, Cirium data shows.

United, which stands to gain gates at O'Hare next year, has advertised around the city that it is "Chicago's #1 Airline" and offered MileagePlus status matches to other carriers' frequent flyers.

May on Thursday said American's recovery at O'Hare was hindered by the pilot shortage that slowed the recovery of its regional partners after the COVID-19 pandemic.

"It came later than we would have liked," he said of rebuilding American's O'Hare hub.

While May declined to comment specifically on the gate allocation process, he did say American plans to "fully utilize" its "assets" — or gates — at O'Hare and grow there in the future.

American has sued to stop Chicago from redistributing gates at O'Hare later this year. The case is pending.

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