Chicago O'Hare Airport breaks summer passenger record as United warns flight caps could last until 2034
Chicago O'Hare International Airport broke its summer passenger record in 2026, the city said, while its biggest airline is warning flights caps could persist for years as construction continues.
The Chicago Department of Aviation said Thursday that the airport had its busiest summer in history for the second year in a row, with more than 25 million passengers traveling to and through the airport between from June through August.
CDA data shows O'Hare saw nearly 650,000 more passengers this summer, for an average of nearly 275,000 people per day. That's an increase of about 2.7% compared to 2025, the city said.
Each month saw more than 8 million passengers at ORD. In June, more than 8.2 million passengers went through O'Hare, up 2.3% from June 2025. July was the airport's busiest month, with 8.54 million passengers, up 3.2% from July 2025. In August, more than 8.2 million passengers traveled through the airport, up 2.7% over August 2025.
The total includes more than 20.4 million domestic passenger and 4.6 million international passengers, the city said. The airport also recorded 245,719 takeoffs and landings this summer, about 6% more than the summer of 2025, according to CDA.
The record was broken even with the imposition of flight caps from the Federal Aviation Administraiton
The FAA imposed flight limitations at O'Hare before the summer travel season, cutting hundreds of flights per day because of concerns about capacity and operational delays. Those limitations have already been extended for another year.
Now United Airline's Chief Commercial Officer, Andrew Nocella, is warning shareholders that the cap on daily flights at O'Hare could last for years.
On United's Q3 earnings call Wednesday, Nocella told investors he expects the restrictions to be extended beyond late 2027 because of the ongoing work to expand and renovate the airport. Called ORDNext, it's the largest terminal expansion project in the history of the airport.
ORDNext is set to last through 2034, and will take some taxi-ways out of service over various periods of time.
