On recent quarterly earnings calls for American Airlines and United Airlines, there was a lot of talk about Chicago O'Hare International Airport, where each carrier recently announced significant new routes and expanded service.
Why the sudden interest in the Windy City, where United is based and where American has a hub? It started last year when the City of Chicago took five O'Hare gates away from American and gave them to United. Gates at the airport are reallocated based on the number of flights each carrier flew in the prior year.
American in May sued the city and United in federal court to stop the transfer, citing that the gate determination process began prematurely and in violation of a lease agreement the city's Department of Aviation negotiated with the airlines in 2018, according to Travel Weekly.
But the Dallas-based carrier was unable to get a temporary order to stop the transfer process. In July, American voluntarily dismissed its federal lawsuit without prejudice, but then refiled it in Cook County Chancery Court. A county judge on Sept. 25 dismissed the argument, and United took over the gates on Oct. 1.
To counter the gate losses, American in early December purchased two gates at O'Hare from bankrupt Spirit Airlines for $30 million, according to Reuters.
In the meantime, the two carriers have been announcing new and expanded O'Hare flights in order to increase (in American's case) or retain (for United) their number of gates at the airport.
United on Oct. 23 announced that, with the five reallocated gates, it would expand its Chicago network with 10 new domestic destinations, six of which would be served exclusively from O'Hare.
American on Dec. 29 upped the ante and announced 100 new O'Hare daily departures to more than 75 destinations in time for spring break 2026 travel, which was on top of the 29 new destinations from O'Hare that American previously had announced for 2025. On Jan. 22, it announced three more new routes for O'Hare.
Still, United said it planned to hold firm.
"In 2026, we're drawing a line in the sand," United CEO Scott Kirby said on the carrier's Jan. 21 earnings call. "We are not going to allow [American] to win a single gate at our expense in 2026. We're not trying to win gates, but we're going to add as many flights as are required to make sure that we keep our gate count the same in Chicago."
United chief commercial officer Andrew Nocella added that the carrier believes that "of the three airline hubs located in Chicago, only United's hub was profitable in 2025, and we expect it will be profitable once again in 2026." Nocella didn't specify the third hub, but Southwest Airlines maintains a hub at Chicago's Midway Airport.
Tuesday morning, prior to American's fourth-quarter earnings call, United announced its "biggest summer yet at Chicago O'Hare," with plans to grow the hub to 750 flights per day for the season, "the largest schedule ever flown by any airline operating here," according to United.
When asked by analysts during American's Jan. 27 earnings call about United's comments regarding Chicago and the competition at O'Hare, CEO Robert Isom said that "we've done a nice job in growing that back. As you look toward next year, that's a hub that will be over 500 [daily] departures."
Isom added that in Chicago, the number of enrollments to its American AAdvantage loyalty program grew 20 percent year over year in 2025, while overall program enrollments grew 7 percent for the period.
"We're going to take advantage of that desire for our product. And as we look out into the future, we anticipate that Chicago will return to its rightful place as one of our largest and more profitable hubs," he said. "It's going to be our third-largest hub. It's critically important to our customers in Chicago and those that connect in the region. It ensures that there is service, competitive service. That's probably the thing that maybe a competitor doesn't like that we're going to be there. We're going to be investing in Chicago."