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United Airlines is growing where it can.
The Chicago-based Star Alliance carrier will add two new routes from San Francisco International Airport (SFO) this winter even as it indefinitely postpones 10 new routes Chicago O’Hare International Airport (ORD), where the Federal Aviation Administration has capped flight numbers.
From SFO, United will launch daily flights to Cincinnati/Northern Kentucky International Airport (CVG) on Oct. 25, and Saturday-only flights to President Donald J. Trump International Airport (DJT) in West Palm Beach, Florida, on Nov. 7, schedule data from aviation analytics firm Cirium shows. Both routes will be flown with a Boeing 737-800. DJT was previously known as Palm Beach International Airport and used airport code PBI.
The new routes come days after the FAA eased restrictions on the number of hourly flights allowed at SFO. The agency cut flights to 36 an hour in April citing runway construction and safety concerns. It raised the number of flights to 40 an hour on Aug. 12 and is expected to bump it up again to 42 an hour by the end of August, The San Francisco Chronicle reported.
Even at 42 flights an hour, SFO will continue to operate below the up to 54 flights-an-hour that were allowed before the caps were implemented.
The improvements follows comments by United chief operating officer Toby Enqvist in June that the airline expected “improvements in landing rates in San Francisco” soon.
Chicago flight caps continue
As United grows at SFO, it remains hamstrung at ORD where the FAA implemented strict flight caps in April. The move was in response to turf war between United and its competitor American Airlines in an effort to control gates under the airport’s program that annually redistributes gates based on flight numbers.
In July, the FAA extended the flight cap at ORD through October 2027 from this October.
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United, which unveiled numerous new ORD routes prior to the FAA’s April decision, was forced to put some of those in ice until it could again increase operations at the airport. Now, with the restriction on flight numbers in place for at least another year, the airline is indefinitely postponing 10 previously announced new routes:
- Central Illinois Regional Airport at Bloomington-Normal (BMI) in Illinois
- Central Wisconsin Airport (CWA) in Wausau, Wisconsin
- Champaign-Urbana Airport (CMI) in Illinois
- Erie International Airport (ERI) in Pennsylvania
- Kalamazoo/Battle Creek International Airport (AZO) in Michigan
- La Crosse Regional Airport (LSE) in Wisconsin
- Lansing Airport (LAN) in Michigan
- Marquette Sawyer Regional Airport (MQT) in Michigan
- Rochester International Airport (RST) in Minnesota
- Tri-Cities Airport (TRI), near Johnson City in Tennessee
“Following the extension of FAA’s Chicago O’Hare’s flight schedule cap through October 2027, we are delaying the start of ten new routes announced earlier this year and removing them from our schedule,” a United spokesperson said. “We remain committed to providing important connectivity to these cities and hope to start service from Chicago once the FAA order expires.”
As a result of the limits on the number of flights at ORD, United will grow seats at the airport by nearly 14% this year compared to 2025, Cirium schedule data shows. The airline can grow seats without adding flights by switching existing flights to larger planes, for example swapping flights on Airbus A320s or Boeing 737 Max 8s with 150-166 seats for larger A321neos and 737 Max 9s with 179-200 seats.
United does not serve any of the 10 destinations where flights are indefinitely suspended to ORD from any of its other hubs, Cirium schedules show.
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