United Airlines’ focus on Chicago O’Hare remains unrelenting. In the schedule update over the weekend, the Star Alliance member added an extra 120,655 departures between March and November—including its five new and returning domestic routes. Its offering has increased by 12%, cementing O’Hare as its busiest hub. These findings are based on examining its submission to Cirium Diio.

Doubling down on O’Hare is, in part, because of a growing rivalry with American, while United obtained five more gates which need to be utilized. In total, and as widely reported, the carrier has scheduled a maximum of 750 daily departures (1,500 daily movements). This is more than at any other point in history.

72 Routes Have At Least 10% More Flights

Credit: GCMap

Compared to what was planned last week, 80 routes have some additional flights from O’Hare. More significantly, 72 domestic routes have at least 10% more departures, as shown on the map. In some cases, the increase is just for one month, or—much more commonly—for multiple months this year.

Choosing 10% as the cutoff point was a random decision. Many routes have grown substantially more than that. For example, several markets now have double the number of departures, including Myrtle Beach, Norfolk, Panama City (FL), and Pensacola.

Services to some American hubs have grown strongly, too. This might illustrate the behemoths’ increasingly combative nature, but then again, they involve major and highly demanded cities. For example, United now plans seven daily departures to Philly, up from the previously scheduled five services.

A Look At O’Hare To Appleton

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Admittedly, this route, which covers just 139 nautical miles (257 km) each way, is not the most exciting-sounding service. But it has seen a decent increase in activity, which is all that matters here. Some 38% more flights are available.

Last week, up to seven daily departures were planned. In the latest update, they’ve grown to a high of nine daily. Three types of equipment will be used: the CRJ550 (GoJet/SkyWest), alongside the CRJ200 (SkyWest) and, occasionally, the E175 (SkyWest). The high of nine daily services will continue through the winter. This growth means that Appleton is now United’s 17th most-served route from O’Hare, up ten places week-over-week.

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United Now Plans Up To 750 Daily Departures

Credit: Cirium Diio

Examining every scheduled departure between March and November confirms what the airline has said publicly. It will indeed now have up to 750 daily departures from O’Hare. However, analysis shows that this volume will only exist on 25 dates between June 8 and August 10, encompassing the World Cup and some of the peak summer.

The figure above shows how United’s daily departures have varied from January 2004 through to November 2026. Until now, the prior high was 700 departures—and that only occurred on December 1, 2019. Between March and November 2026, the highest level of activity was to be 658 daily outbound services. As such, the increase to a maximum of 750 departures is substantial.

As mentioned earlier, United has added 120,655 outbound extra flights in the examined period. Regional jet activity is particularly critical to this development, with such services up more than a fifth, from 80,894 departures to 98,211. The cramped, uncomfortable, 50-seat CRJ200 is particularly important to this growth (+56%). In all, RJs will now operate 51% of United’s services from its O’Hare hub, up four points year-over-year. This means that the airline’s number of seats per flight has fallen from 119 to just 114.