United Airlines said it will operate its largest-ever summer schedule from its Chicago O’Hare International Airport (ORD) hub, unveiling five new routes.
Chicago-based United and rival American Airlines, which also has an ORD hub, have been engaged in increasingly heated competition at the busy airport. United CEO Scott Kirby recently said the carrier would be “drawing a line in the sand” this year to retain supremacy at ORD.
United plans to operate 750 peak daily departures from ORD for the summer—100 more than the airline had planned just a month ago—while American has said it will operate 500-550 daily flights from the airport during the season.
United announced five new additions to its summer schedule on Jan. 27. The routes are all regional, aimed at feeding traffic from smaller Midwest markets to ORD.
From April 30, the carrier will open 4X-weekly service from ORD to both Champaign/Urbana, Illinois, and Kalamazoo, Michigan. From May 7, three more 4X-weekly routes will be added from ORD: La Crosse, Wisconsin; Lansing, Michigan; and Bloomington/Normal, Illinois.
With the new additions, United will serve 222 destinations from ORD, including 47 international cities and 175 domestic airports.
In addition to new routes, the airline said it will offer more frequencies to 80 already-served destinations from ORD this summer, including Boston, American’s base Dallas/Fort Worth, Los Angeles and San Francisco.
United currently has more than 18,000 employees based in Chicago between ORD and Midway Airport. It said it will hire 2,500 more ORD-based workers by the end of this year to support the planned growth.
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