Chicago’s O’Hare International Airport (ORD) is located 18 miles Northwest of Downtown Chicago, within the city of Chicago in the state of Illinois. It is American Airlines’ gateway to the Midwest, and it provides connections within the Midwest, North/South, and East/West traffic flows. It is currently American Airlines’ (AA) 4th largest hub, using data between April 2024 and April 2025. In the article below, we will look at the ins and outs of American’s Chicago hub from both its local dynamics to the need it fulfills for American itself.
About Chicago
As of the 2023 demographic numbers provided by data.census.gov, the Chicago-Naperville-Elgin metro area has 1,748,189 foreign-born residents. This makes it the 5th largest metropolitan area for foreign-born residents. Chicago’s largest immigrant groups by country are Mexico, India, Poland, the Philippines, and China. The Chicago-Naperville-Elgin metro area decreased in population by -176,873 between 2018 and 2023, which represented a 1.9% population decline.
As of the end of 2023, the Chicago metropolitan area had a GDP of $725.5 billion, which represented 3.8% growth between 2021 and 2023.
About United's Hub at ORD
- Population within 100 KM of ORD: 10.73 million
- Total passenger count at ORD between April 2024 and April 2025: 77,124,648
- Total passengers carried by American and its regional subsidiaries: 36,756,166
- Total passenger count in the Chicago Metro Area between April 2024 and April 2025: 98,301,633
- Percentage of traffic at ORD carried by UA: 47.7%
- Percentage of traffic at ORD carried by UA for all airports in the Chicago Metro area: 37.4%
Destinations Served...
At present, UA serves 146 domestic and 45 international destinations. Of those, 127 domestic and 21 international destinations are served year-round, with at least four flights per week.
United’s Overall Load Factor at ORD was 84.17% between April 2024 and April 2025. The highest LF routes from ORD on UA were (must have at least 36 yearly departures):
First the Highest...
- Cancun (CUN): 93.83%
- Punta Cana (PUJ): 92.64%
- Athens (ATH): 92.58%
- Kalispell, MT (FCA): 92.42%
- Guatemala City (GUA): 92.19%
- San Juan (SJU): 92.01%
- Edinburgh (EDI): 90.80%
- Portland (PDX): 90.67%
- Vancouver (YVR): 90.67%
- Calgary (YYC): 90.39%
...and the Lowest.
- Joplin, MO (JLN): 66.49%
- St. Lucia (UVF): 64.95%
- Providenciales (PLS): 64.59%
- Eau Claire, WI (EAU): 60.64%
- Salina, KS (SLN): 58.98%
- Johnstown, PA (JST): 48.82%
- Morgantown, WV (MGW): 46.13%
- Decatur, IL (DAC): 42.33%
- Fort Dodge, IA (FOD): 31.25%
- Mason City, IA (MCW): 28.26%
Connectivity
23,889 passengers connect at ORD on UA daily each way. Of those, 20,363 were making purely domestic connections, and 3,526 were making connections with an international component. These figures mostly represent United Airlines and its marketed flights, but also those that fly into ORD on another carrier to connect to United.
Fleet Breakdown at UA's ORD Hub
In April 2025, United averaged 519 departures a day from its ORD hub. Of these, 286 were mainline flights operated by United itself, and 233 were regional flights operated by United’s regional partners. This makes a 55.1% Mainline operation.
Chicago as an O&D Market for United
United flies 26,133 daily O&D passengers from ORD daily, non-directionally averaged between April 2024 and April 2025 (PDEW)
- Of the 26,133 total O&D passengers, 22,692 passengers carried by UA to/from ORD are domestic O&D.
- Domestic O&D grew by 3,583 PDEW or 15.8% since 2019.
- Below are the largest domestic O&D markets carried by UA to/from ORD.
Domestic O&D to/from ORD by UA Hub...
- San Francisco (SFO): 1,175
- Newark (EWR): 1,146
- Los Angeles (LAX): 998
- Denver (DEN): 877
- Houston (IAH): 802
- Washington, DC (IAD): 340
- Guam (GUM): 5
...and by non-UA Hub.
- New York City (LGA): 1,278
- Orlando (MCO): 749
- Boston (BOS): 660
- Las Vegas (LAS): 568
- Phoenix (PHX): 527
- Fort Myers (RSW): 449
- San Diego (SAN): 417
- Fort Lauderdale (FLL): 406
- Tampa (TPA): 399
- Dallas (DFW): 390
- Minneapolis (MSP): 370
- Atlanta (ATL): 338
- Philadelphia (PHL): 337
- Seattle (SEA): 315
- Austin (AUS): 275
- Nashville (BNA): 272
- Cleveland (CLE): 271
- Santa Ana (SNA): 267
- Miami (MIA): 258
- UA carries 3,441 international O&D passengers on average, non-directional, daily to/from ORD.
- This is up by 607 PDEW or 17.6% since 2019.
- Below are the largest international O&D markets to/from ORD by passengers carried by UA.
Top International Leisure Destinations by O&D...
- Cancun (CUN): 362
- Punta Cana (PUJ): 102
- San Jose del Cabo (SJD): 80
- Puerto Vallarta (PVR): 67
- Montego Bay (MBJ): 62
....and top non-Leisure based International Destinations.
- Toronto (YYZ): 250
- London (LHR): 172
- Mexico City (MEX): 145
- Paris (CDG): 121
- Rome (FCO): 105
- Vancouver (YVR): 98
- Frankfurt (FRA): 88
- Sao Paulo (GRU): 66
- Calgary (YYC): 63
Largest Markets Unserved by UA at ORD: Domestic
- Dallas (DAL): 236
- White Plains (HPN): 99
- St. Petersburg (PIE): 84
- McAllen (MFE): 40
- Burbank (BUR): 38
Largest Markets Unserved by UA at ORD: International
- Guadalajara (GDL): 486
- Madrid (MAD): 166
- Delhi (DEL): 158
- Warsaw (WAW): 141
- Istanbul (IST): 131
The Present and Future of UA's Hub at ORD: what is and what is possible.
Beyond O&D, ORD’s primary purpose is to serve as a connecting point between East/West traffic flows within the US, with a secondary purpose of connecting traffic to Europe. Geographically, very few other cities are blessed with the geography that Chicago has. It is one of the largest logistical hubs in the world. UA has capitalized on this. They have the highest market share and are the favored airline in the local market. Still, UA faces stiff competition from American Airlines (AA) at ORD, which means they will continuously be fighting them off. What does this mean for the hub?
Chicago is a compeitive market, but UA stand out.
United has to compete with two other major domestic carriers in the form of American (AA) and Southwest (WN) in the Chicago market; however, UA really lives up to its moniker from the 90s as “Chicago’s Hometown Airline”. It has the most diverse selection of destinations, and it has the most year-round service of those destinations.
The data clearly shows that, while there is a seasonal component across all carriers in the Chicago market, it is less pronounced for United. This bodes well for being the airline of choice for the Chicago-based business traveler who demands frequency and options. 87% of the domestic destinations served by UA at ORD are served year-round. 46.7% of the international destinations served by UA at ORD are served year-round. Domestically, AA is comparable with 83.8% of its destinations served year-round, but only 30% of its international destinations are served year-round.
United appears to be makeing the correct decisions at ORD. Their marketshare has remained strong.
United not only maintains a high market share at ORD, but its market share is very stable. In recent years, their market share has risen relative to their main competition in the Chicago market. For lack of a better way of saying it, they are the carrier to beat in the Chicago market.
So, where does UA go from here at ORD?
It is hard to see what UA needs to do differently at ORD. It is mostly about maintaining what they have and finding creative new ways to add to it. Frankly, their competitors have made it easy for them.
WN has had a steadily decreasing market share continuously since the end of the COVID-19 pandemic. Between 2022 and 2024, AA de-emphasized ORD in favor of beefing up Dallas (DFW) and Charlotte (CLT), betting that corporate travel levels would not recover. The bet was not well placed, and AA lost it. AA has since reversed its decisions, but they may not get back what they lost for some time. Thanks to their competitors’ decisions regarding the Chicago market, maintaining their dominance has been easier than perhaps it should have been for UA.
United has a very robust domestic network at ORD. Of the 137 domestic markets that have at least 30 PDEW to Chicago, only 12 (excluding ski markets) do not have year-round service to ORD on UA more than four times a week. Of those 14, some have seasonal service on UA to ORD (Fresno, Bangor, Anchorage, Kona, and Missoula), some are not served by UA at all (Long Beach, Punta Gorda, White Plains, Oakland, Houston-Hobby, and Dallas-Love), and only a few are served by United without any service to ORD (McAllen, Harlingen, and Eugene). This shows that UA has largely maximized its network out of ORD. Almost all cities with significant year-round demand to the Chicago area are well served by UA.
This leaves few new domestic opportunities for UA at ORD.
Internationally, UA has slowly been adding more to its ORD hub. Most of this has manifested in the form of seasonal flying to Europe. I would expect that trend to continue. Summer seasonal flying from ORD tends to have a lot of connections associated with it. ORD’s geography makes it a natural connection point to Europe from West of the Mississippi. Trends for summer seasonal flying are similar between AA and UA.
Before the COVID-19 pandemic, UA had several flights to East Asia from ORD. They flew from ORD to Hong Kong (HKG), Shanghai (PVG), and Beijing (PEK). While Hong Kong was canceled before the pandemic started, Shanghai and Beijing were canceled due to the pandemic. As of now, Russian airspace is closed, which complicates UA flying between ORD and HKG and PEK. ORD-PVG could be done, but the market between the US and China is not what it was before the pandemic. Another thing to consider is that UA likely will not reboot a flight between ORD and Asia that they have not already done at Newark (EWR) due to the higher demand between New York City and China.
UA was flying between ORD and Delhi (DEL) and Tel Aviv (TLV) before Russia invaded Ukraine. With the airspace closed, their resumption is not likely. UA will likely focus these destinations solely from EWR for the time being.
Latin America will probably not present many opportunities for UA from ORD. ORD-Mexico is a massive market, but it’s also incredibly competitive. Many of those competitors are operated by ultra-low-cost carriers (ULCCs). It is difficult to compete with their cost structure unless the business component is significant. While that is the case for Mexico City (MEX) and Monterrey (MTY), some like Morelia (MLM) or Aguascalientes (AGU) have ULCC competition and low fares. The math says no. (Reference my article on VFR demand between the US and Mexico for Details.)
UA flies to a few destinations in Central America, but while ORD-Mexico is a massive market, ORD-Central America is not a very large one. There is demand for ORD-Costa Rica in the winter for leisure travel and some VFR (visiting friends and relatives) between ORD and Guatemala. But the demand between ORD and Central America is actually the 2nd lowest among UA’s hub cities. The graph below represents all airlines, not just UA.
For South America, I also do not see any opportunities for expansion. UA seems intent on leaving the bulk of its South American service at Houston (IAH), but what isn’t flown from IAH would be concentrated at EWR due to the massive demand between New York City and South America. The exception to this is São Paulo (GRU). ORD-GRU is a large O&D market with good fares. However, I do think that is where ORD-South America will stop. The only other potential option is Bogota (BOG), but competing with the ULCC of AV would be rough on that route.
ORD is not a viable place for expansion to Australasia or Africa in my view. Other hubs are better placed, and other markets have more demand for service to those regions.
United has done right by their hometown
United has made the right moves at ORD, and their competitors have backtracked. UA doesn’t have to do much extra to keep its status at ORD, though it no doubt will continue to add capacity and destinations. It is up to other airlines to challenge UA at ORD, not the other way around.