By Alison Sider
The CEOs of United and American Airlines traded barbs Tuesday over their competing plans to beef up flying out of Chicago's O'Hare International Airport.
American has accused United of dumping flights into O'Hare, abusing the process the city uses to allocate space in order to edge American out. United says it's American that has been scrambling to add money-losing flying to claw back its position.
The Federal Aviation Administration has stepped in. This week it proposed to cap the number of flights at the airport at last summer's level in order to prevent delays. That would require carriers to cull more than 400 flights from summer schedules. The FAA said it will hold another meeting with carriers later this week.
American CEO Robert Isom said that's a relief. He pinned blame for the bloated schedules on "the reckless scheduling of our competitor," speaking at an investor conference.
"There was going to be gridlock, plain and simple," he said.
United CEO Scott Kirby shot back that American has only itself to blame for losing ground at O'Hare.
"United wasn't trying to harm American, or even win gates from American. American made decisions that they lost gates, and those are the consequences," he said, speaking at the same conference.
Still, Kirby said he welcomed the government's intervention.
"The DOT is going to come in and play dad and force us to share, and it's going to all be fine," he said.
This item is part of a Wall Street Journal live coverage event. The full stream can be found by searching P/WSJL (WSJ Live Coverage).
(END) Dow Jones Newswires
March 17, 2026 15:48 ET (19:48 GMT)
Copyright (c) 2026 Dow Jones & Company, Inc.
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