United Airlines CEO Scott Kirby is turning up the heat, at least in terms of rhetoric, on American Airlines in Chicago, suggesting his competitor could eventually be forced to dehub Chicago O’Hare as United ramps up to 600 daily departures. Kirby also provided a United fleet update as the carrier accelerates delivery of new aircraft.
United CEO Suggests American Could Be Forced To Dehub Chicago O’Hare, Provides Fleet Update
Kirby made the remarks in a meeting with pilots, referencing United’s growing dominance at O’Hare and the competitive disadvantage faced by American Airlines, which has cut back service at the airport in recent years, even as it now seeks to ramp up service. While couched in speculation, the tone of his comments was characteristically confident…United sees itself as the undisputed home carrier at O’Hare.
United’s Expansion, American’s Contraction
United is on track to operate around 600 flights per day from O’Hare (ORD), a number that reflects both domestic breadth and international depth. By contrast, American’s footprint in Chicago has shrunk over the last few years. The airline still calls O’Hare one of its hubs, but its growth has been concentrated in Dallas/Fort Worth (DFW), Charlotte (CLT), and Miami (MIA).
Kirby suggested that if trends continue, American may be unable to justify Chicago as a hub. While United expands bank structures and increases connectivity, American has been more focused on trimming unprofitable routes and prioritizing strength elsewhere. Even its new routes have often been at off-peak times, such as domestic departures after 10:00 pm. In Kirby’s view, that could eventually lead American to retreat further, leaving United with even greater control over one of the nation’s busiest airports.
This sort of competitive posturing is not new. Airlines regularly talk up their dominance in hub markets and predict the demise of rivals. In practice, the reality is often more nuanced. American continues to maintain a significant presence in Chicago and benefits from O’Hare’s role as a critical Midwest gateway. But it is difficult to ignore the widening gap in schedules and connectivity between the two carriers, particularly when examining peak versus off-peak growth (where much of AA’s growth has been).
And American Airlines seems to be correct in its legal argument that the recent growth favoring United at ORD runs afoul of the contractual guarantees AA had with ORD.
United Fleet + Network Updates
In his talk to pilots, Kirby also shared updates on the massive wave of fleet deliveries and operational changes ahead that will reshape the airline over the next several years:
- Over 100 new aircraft scheduled for delivery in 2026.
- Airbus A321XLR arrives in summer 2026, flying internationally by Q4 with new European destinations.
- Boeing 787 deliveries increase to two per month in January 2026, with growth in Los Angeles (LAX), San Francisco (SFO), and Newark (EWR).
- Some SFO 777 routes will shift to 787s as 777s redeploy to Newark (EWR) and Washington Dulles (IAD).
- Boeing 777 operations will grow at IAD and EWR; 757 and 767 flying will also increase at those hubs as aircraft move from the West Coast.
- Boeing 767-300 fleet will undergo another round of heavy checks and remain in service until the early 2030s.
- 737 MAX-10 deliveries delayed until 2027; United will continue converting MAX-10 orders to MAX-9 to maintain steady inflow. (As a result, United is no longer the MAX-10 launch customer)
- A350 remains an option as a 777 replacement, with a final decision expected by Q4 2025. Rolls-Royce has offered favorable engine pricing but also wants to buy United out of its contract.
- Plans to double international capacity at IAD with 14 additional gates.
- Pursuing additional JFK slots “beyond those expected from JetBlue,” with a goal of 20 daily slots.
- No interest in acquiring other airlines or used aircraft, but United is actively pursuing more gates and slots at key airports.
United hopes to hire 2,400 pilots in 2026 and would hire even more if its training facility in Denver had sufficient space.
CONCLUSION
Kirby’s comments about American potentially being forced out of Chicago are as much about rallying United’s employees as they are about market dynamics. Still, they reflect a very real trend: United is growing more rapidly at O’Hare than American and is trying to use its momentum to squeeze out more gate space. Whether this imbalance will ultimately push American to downgrade or abandon its hub status in Chicago remains to be seen, but for now the battle lines are clear, and United’s CEO is signaling victory before it has even been won…in typical Kirby fashion.
As for the fleet updates, the 767s will live longer than many of us thought, but the biggest (unresolved) issue is whether United will ever take delivery of the A350s and if so, will that be viable replacements for its aging 777 fleet?
Without O’Hare, AA would effectively have no hubs in the northwest quadrant of the country (nothing north of DFW until… CLT, lol)
Chicago to me seems like LAX where they alone amongst American cities can support hub load for multiple carriers. I could see ORD effectively being more of a focus city for AA but I don’t see ‘em ever fully de-hubbing it unless like Boise gets 5 million population & many of them wealthy
Isn’t AA also much weaker than UA for international flights outside of the Americas as well? I think at this point AA only has flights to LHR out of ORD.
Just to clarify, I was referring to year round flights, not seasonal destinations.
When I was an AA employee based at ORD, I cared very much about nonstop international because it was always easiest and cheaper to non-rev on my own airline’s metal.
But since then, as a business traveler, I really only care about maintaining alliance loyalty for status and mileage accrual. So if AA only flies to LHR in the dead of winter, but I can get to my work destination via MAD on IB, DOH on QR, HND/NRT on JL, HKG on CX, or AMM on RJ, then I don’t really care that it’s not an AA flight crew or aircraft taking me over the ocean. When I think about loyalty at ORD, it’s not AA vs UA for me but rather oneworld vs Star.
In that case, SA also beats out OW since I do beleieve more SA airlines fly to ORD.
Quantitatively, you’re right.
Qualitatively, it’s about where I need to go, where I want to connect, and the quality of service on the operating carriers. That answer is different for everyone, but for me, it’s OW over SA as an ORD-based pax.
Hey Mano, Aaron’s in love with you because he likes to make a Man O in his mouth and a$$ at least 3 times a day.
We don’t call him c#ck breath for nothing around here.
The only person on here who calls me that is you. But then, you are obsessed with my cock…well, cock in general, anyway.
If I were a Chicago business traveler, if AA only has LHR transatlantic flights during the winter but I have to go to Continental Europe, I am not going to fly AA. I don’t want to have to explain to the boss that I missed my connection. Instead, I will fly Lufthansa or whatever airline will get me there non-stop.
A truly comprehensive network is nice but if American has decent service and flies to the cities that I need to go, then I would consider AA. In reality, I like United better so, if I were a Chicago business traveler, I would tend to fly United. AA is definitely the low class of the big 3, except Delta is the worse of the big 3’s frequent flyer programs.
Some business travelers like lounges, but I don’t value them much. What I value is the gate agents and FA are not soup-Nazis (or bag Nazis), there is some schedule reliability, not extremely high fares, and little touches help, like IFE instead of relying on your phone, which I don’t like to overuse.
As someone who flies AA multiple times a month unfortunately I have to go through ORD occasionally to the upper Midwest/ Mountains or even to Buffalo. DFW has a bad rep but I have had just as many bad experiences at ORD as DFW in 1/10 of the flights. Antidotal of course but for some reason AA is struggling there with multiple issues in my experience.
Kirby may be right, about ORD, AA really needs to sh#t or get off the pot. But damn, I love getting Garrett’s popcorn there. But I’m sure Aaron prefers “Nuts on Clark”.
Your obsession with me is really sad. Even by inbred Nazi standards.
So are you calling me an ICE officer? Because you people called them Nazis as well. Great job on ruining the word gerbil lover.
Start cleaning your own toilets as you obviously aren’t afraid of sh#t on your c#ck, so you don’t need beaners.
I mean, if the Nazi uniform fits, which is your case, it clearly does…
You truly are a world class piece of shit of a human being.
May you rot in hell where you truly belong.
Now go back to idolizing child rapists, shut the folk up and let people with actual intelligence talk.
Ryan, Thanks for agreeing with me about Aaron! But I never knew he idolized child rapists, I always thought he enjoyed 18 year old hairless “men”.
And telling him to rot in hell is a little rough, it’s more fun keeping him around here to laugh at. And he’s not a piece of sh#t, he just has pieces all over his c#ck.
He was replying to you, not me, you inbred Nazi moron lol
Wait a second, I prefer Nuts On Clark. Then again, I only order the stuff that comes directly out of the machine, and Garrett’s is a little too cloying on their buttered popcorn. Also, Garrett’s doesn’t offer salt, and I prefer my oil-puffed maize on the salty side. So Nuts On Clark it is. However, I’m not a nutcase like Gary Leff who regards Tortas Frontera as holy ground.
no, other airlines do not talk about the demise of their competitors.
and, as is to be expected, UA execs have a bad case of FOMO; they can’t let go of old aircraft such as the 767 that are not efficient or as reliable as newer models.
Tim, didn’t your favorite airline specialize in extending the life of old aircraft? And don’t they fly a sizable fleet of 767s with a bad business class hard product?
Doesn’t Delta operate older 757s than United’s 767s? Ironic that the “premium airline” sells such an old product. Timmy boy probably doesn’t want to admit that his favourite airline fails at the thing he hits united for most…
AAL would not de-hub Chicago, an important corporate market. AAL can afford to lose money in Chicago for many years.
Outside of Jetblue and Delta, I can only think of two airlines which hold enough JFK slots for UAL to acquire/lease; Alaska and American. UAL would likely have to wait until Delta return the 20 JFK slots at the end of the long term lease before UA can serve JFK in a meaningful way.
For a supposedly smart guy Kirby makes an impressive number of stunningly stupid statements, this being a perfect example. How are we supposed to take him seriously when he makes such asinine proclamations?
United has a significant handicap in their pilot scope contract that forces them to operate so many non-competitive 50-seat RJs. Wish that the pilots would let them compete with 76 seat aircraft in markets and time slots where the A319 is too much. That would lead to more growth in mainline flying overall.
I’m not booking CR2 flights if I can avoid it
@ Carl, all the pilot contracts have terrible scope clauses, Delta has a clause that basically forces them to fly widebodies over the Atlantic so the A321XLR would be useless.
There’s nothing in the ALPA contact that stops United from operating as many 76 seat jets as they’d like… what is prohibited, however, is for United to outsource the operation of those jets to other airlines.
Are there many missions that UA can’t cover with either 787-9, 78X, 77W or 777-9 when it finally comes? Does UA need the complexity of an A350 fleet? Seems like there are a lot of advantages of standardizing on the 787 777
UAL’s Airbus A350 order dated back more than a decade ago, before merging with Continental.
UAL is now large enough in scale to support two different widebody fleet type, B787 & A350. I prefer UAL to order the larger A350-1000 variant, which has a longer range.