FAA Imposes Scheduling Limits at Chicago O'Hare to Prevent Summer Delays

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Trump’s Transportation Secretary Sean P. Duffy Takes Action to Prevent Endless Delays, Cancellations at Chicago O’Hare

Thursday, April 16, 2026 Proactive move ensures travel runs a little smoother at one of the nation’s busiest hubs

WASHINGTON, D.C. – U.S. Transportation Secretary Sean P. Duffy and the Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) today announced a new action to prevent widespread flight delays this summer at Chicago O’Hare International Airport (ORD), where less than 60% of arrivals and departures were on time last summer.

ORD is the busiest airport in America by flight volume, with more than 3,080 flights planned on peak days for summer 2026, which represents a 14.9% peak-day increase over summer 2025. The FAA’s action – known as a scheduling reduction – limits daily operations to 2,708 to prevent a dramatic increase from last summer’s peak daily schedule.

It follows a series of meetings the FAA organized with airline and ORD representatives to address overscheduling.

“If you book a ticket, we want you and your family to have the certainty that you’ll fly without endless delays and cancellations,” said U.S. Transportation Secretary Sean P. Duffy. “We successfully turned Newark Liberty International into the most on-time airport in the Tri-State Area by fixing telecoms issues at record speed and reducing overcapacity. Applying that same strategy at O’Hare – where unrealistic schedules were set to dramatically exceed what they could handle – will reduce delays and make this busy summer travel season a little easier. Along with our work to modernize air traffic control and boost staffing, the Trump Administration is using every tool at its disposal to deliver a safe, efficient, and seamless flying experience.”

“Our number one priority is the safety of the flying public, and that means ensuring airline schedules reflect what the system can safely handle,” said FAA Administrator Bryan Bedford. “We appreciate the airlines working together with us to reach a responsible level of operations that strengthens safety and delivers a more reliable travel experience for the American public.”

The limitations will be in effect from May 17 to Oct. 24, 2026. The FAA order allocates operations among airlines based on their approved summer 2025 schedules.

Additional Information:

ORD’s proposed flight volume of 3,080 daily flights on peak days was a 400-operation increase compared to last year. Air traffic controllers also are dealing with constrained gate capacity and ongoing taxiway closures from construction.

Airline representatives worked in one-on-one meetings with the FAA to find a balance between reducing their operations at the airport and meeting each airline’s needs.

The FAA’s decision on the scheduling limits is in this final order.

Other FAA actions around ORD:

The FAA is taking additional decisive steps to improve safety and efficiency at and around ORD, including:

• Bringing in more air traffic controllers and improving the speed of controller training
• Optimizing routes and airspace around Chicago to reduce delays
• Increasing Collaborative Decision Making (CDM) calls between the FAA, airlines and the airport during potential high-risk periods ###