Notice2026-04198
Operating Limitations at Chicago O'Hare International Airport, Notice of Meeting and Request for Information
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Published
March 3, 2026
Issuing agencies
Transportation DepartmentFederal Aviation Administration
Abstract
FAA will conduct a meeting to discuss flight restrictions at Chicago O'Hare International Airport (ORD) to reduce overscheduling and flight delays during peak hours of operation at that airport. This meeting is open to all scheduled air carriers, regardless of whether they currently provide scheduled service to ORD, and to the Chicago Department of Aviation, which is the airport operator of ORD. Registration in advance of the meeting is requested. In addition, FAA invites interested persons to submit written information on such schedule reductions. FAA plans to issue its decision on scheduling limitations in a final order.
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<title>Federal Register, Volume 91 Issue 41 (Tuesday, March 3, 2026)</title>
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[Federal Register Volume 91, Number 41 (Tuesday, March 3, 2026)]
[Notices]
[Pages 10436-10439]
From the Federal Register Online via the Government Publishing Office [<a href="http://www.gpo.gov">www.gpo.gov</a>]
[FR Doc No: 2026-04198]
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DEPARTMENT OF TRANSPORTATION
Federal Aviation Administration
Operating Limitations at Chicago O'Hare International Airport,
Notice of Meeting and Request for Information
AGENCY: Department of Transportation, Federal Aviation Administration
(FAA).
ACTION: Notice of scheduling reduction meeting and request for
information.
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SUMMARY: FAA will conduct a meeting to discuss flight restrictions at
Chicago O'Hare International Airport (ORD) to reduce overscheduling and
flight delays during peak hours of operation at that airport. This
meeting is open to all scheduled air carriers, regardless of whether
they currently provide scheduled service to ORD, and to the Chicago
Department of Aviation, which is the airport operator of ORD.
Registration in advance of the meeting is requested. In addition, FAA
invites interested persons to submit written information on such
schedule reductions. FAA plans to issue its decision on scheduling
limitations in a final order.
DATES: Scheduling reduction meeting. The FAA Administrator will host
opening remarks on March 3, 2026, at 3:00 p.m. FAA will hold the
scheduling reduction meeting on March 4, 2026, beginning at 9:00 a.m.,
and the meeting may continue, if necessary, until adjourned by the FAA.
Written information. Any written information on the subject of
schedule reductions at ORD, including data and views, must be submitted
by March 11, 2026. To the extent possible, FAA will consider late-filed
submissions in making its determination in its final order.
ADDRESSES: Scheduling reduction meeting. The meeting will be held in
the Bessie Coleman Room at the Orville Wright Building of the FAA, 800
Independence Ave. SW, Washington, DC 20591.
<bullet> Federal eRulemaking Portal: Go to <a href="http://www.regulations.gov">http://www.regulations.gov</a> and follow the instructions for submitting your
information or comments electronically.
Instructions: You must include the agency name and docket number
FAA-2004-16944 for this notice at the beginning of the information that
you submit. Note that the information received will be posted without
change to <a href="http://www.regulations.gov">http://www.regulations.gov</a>, including any personal
information provided. Submissions to the docket that include trade
secrets, confidential, commercial, or financial information, or
sensitive security information will not be posted in the public docket.
Such information will be placed in a separate file to which the public
does not have access, and a note will be placed in the public docket to
state that the agency has received such materials from the submitter.
Privacy: We will post all comments we receive, without change,
including any personal information you provide. Using the search
function of the docket website, anyone can find and read the electronic
form of all comments received into any of our dockets, including the
name of the individual sending or signing the comment. You may review
DOT's complete Privacy Act Statement in the Federal Register published
on April 11, 2000 (65 FR 19477-78).
Docket: To read background documents or comments received, go to
<a href="http://www.regulations.gov">http://www.regulations.gov</a> at any time and follow the online
instructions for accessing the docket. Alternatively, you may visit the
Docket Management Facility in Room Wl2-140 of the West Building Ground
Floor of the Department of Transportation at 1200 New Jersey Avenue SE,
Washington, DC. between 9 a.m. and 5 p.m., Monday through Friday,
except Federal holidays.
Registration: To register for attendance, contact Al Meilus at the
numbers provided in the FOR FURTHER INFORMATION CONTACT section of this
notice.
FOR FURTHER INFORMATION CONTACT: Al Meilus, Slot Administration and
Capacity Analysis, FAA ATO System Operations Services, AJR-G5, Federal
Aviation Administration, 800 Independence Avenue SW, Washington, DC
20591; telephone (202) 267-2822; email <a href="/cdn-cgi/l/email-protection#1b7a7735767e72776e685b7d7a7a357c746d"><span class="__cf_email__" data-cfemail="d2b3befcbfb7bbbea7a192b4b3b3fcb5bda4">[email protected]</span></a>.
SUPPLEMENTARY INFORMATION:
Background
The Federal Aviation Act (the Act) at 49 U.S.C. 41722, authorizes
the Secretary of Transportation to request air carriers to attend a
meeting with the FAA Administrator to discuss flight schedule
reductions at any severely congested airport during peak operating
hours.
The Department of Transportation (DOT) and FAA have determined that
the communicated increase in operations at ORD will exceed the
airport's capacity throughout the Summer 2026 scheduling season, March
29, 2026, through October 25, 2026. In addition to planned schedule
increases by carriers, ORD continues to undergo long term construction
projects that have and will impact operations to varying degrees
throughout the Summer 2026 Scheduling Season.
Currently published schedules exceed 3,080 daily operations on peak
days (source: Cirium).<SUP>1 2</SUP> By comparison, daily scheduled
operations for the Summer 2025 Scheduling Season peaked at
approximately 2,680 total operations. This proposed increase is
significant and would stress the runway, terminal, and air traffic
control systems at the airport.
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\1\ Notice of Submission Deadline for Schedule Information for
Chicago O'Hare International Airport, John F. Kennedy International
Airport, Los Angeles International Airport, Newark Liberty
International Airport, and San Francisco International Airport for
the Summer 2026 Scheduling Season. October 3, 2025. <a href="https://www.faa.gov/media/106116">https://www.faa.gov/media/106116</a>.
\2\ The publication of the Summer 2026 Schedule Submission
notice was made on the FAA's website due to the lapse in
appropriations disrupting timely publication in the Federal
Register.
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Presently, ORD facilitates approximately 100 hourly departures and
arrivals respectively, resulting in approximately 2,800 total daily
operations. This level of operations is manageable given the current
infrastructure and staffing resources available at ORD. FAA proposes
adopting these same limits throughout the Summer 2026 Scheduling Season
to prevent large-scale operational disruption while also allowing air
carriers to operate within the airport's demonstrated manageable
capacity. FAA will review each 30-minute period between 06:00 and 21:59
local time with carriers to meet the overall hourly proposed scheduling
limit.
As such, the Administrator has determined, pursuant to the Act,
that scheduled operations at ORD must be
[[Page 10437]]
limited to address overscheduling and that a scheduling reduction
meeting is necessary in order to discuss flight reductions during peak
operating hours. The Secretary of Transportation has also determined,
pursuant to the Act, that a scheduling reduction meeting regarding
flight reductions at ORD is necessary to meet a serious transportation
need or to achieve an important public benefit, both of which include
preserving competition, passenger throughput, and access to the airport
as much as possible. In light of these determinations, FAA will conduct
a scheduling reduction meeting pursuant to the Act.
As dictated by statute, the scheduling reduction meeting will only
address planned scheduled operations by domestic air carriers. The
scheduled operations of foreign air carriers are managed under a
process defined by the International Air Transport Association (IATA).
FAA will initiate steps under the IATA process to manage, if necessary,
the scheduled operations of foreign air carriers at ORD that are
complementary to the scheduling reduction meeting.
The FAA Administrator invites participants to attend opening
remarks on Tuesday, March 3, 2026, at 3:00 p.m. FAA will then convene
the scheduling reduction meeting on Wednesday, March 4, 2026, beginning
at 9:00 a.m. The meeting may continue, if necessary, until adjourned by
FAA.
FAA will transcribe the scheduling reduction meeting, including
those sessions in which air carriers offer flight reductions to FAA, as
provided for by the procedures outlined below. The transcript and other
documents related to the meeting will be available for inspection in
Department of Transportation Docket FAA-2004-16944. In addition, any
interested person may submit written information to the public docket
no later than March 11, 2026. The docket may be accessed via the
internet at <a href="http://www.regulations.gov">http://www.regulations.gov</a> or at the Docket Management
Facility for the Department of Transportation.
After conducting the scheduling reduction meeting and considering
all submitted information, FAA will publish its final order on delay
reductions at ORD in the Federal Register. The order is expected to be
effective through the Summer 2026 scheduling season and may restrict
service during peak hours by all carriers, including carriers that are
not currently operating at ORD.
To ensure that proper accommodations are afforded at the meeting,
all scheduled carriers that wish to attend the scheduling reduction
meeting should register for the meeting on or before March 2, 2026.
Registration may be accomplished by contacting Al Meilus, Slot
Administration and Capacity Analysis, FAA ATO System Operations
Services, AJR-G5, Federal Aviation Administration, 800 Independence
Avenue SW, Washington, DC 20591; email <a href="/cdn-cgi/l/email-protection#94f5f8baf9f1fdf8e1e7d4f2f5f5baf3fbe2"><span class="__cf_email__" data-cfemail="7b1a1755161e12170e083b1d1a1a551c140d">[email protected]</span></a>, identifying
the air carrier and its intention to attend the meeting and identifying
who will represent the air carrier at the meeting.
FAA's Air Traffic Organization will work with individual carriers
to validate the schedule information to be used by FAA during the
course of the scheduling reduction meeting. Because the scheduling
reduction meeting and all preparations for it are subject to the U.S.
antitrust laws, FAA has coordinated with the Department of Justice,
Antitrust Division, on procedures for conducting the meeting in a way
that should facilitate legal compliance and mirror the procedures FAA
has used for scheduling reduction meetings in the past.\3\
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\3\ See, Operating Limitations at Newark Liberty International
Airport, Notice of Meeting and Request for Information (May 14,
2025) 90 FR 20545.
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As noted in this correspondence, communications among carriers
regarding competitively sensitive information could result in a
violation of the antitrust laws and lead to civil or criminal
liability. Thus, the procedures outlined in this notice provide for a
series of schedule reduction sessions to be conducted separately by FAA
staff with each air carrier attending the meeting. We may also meet
with representatives of the airport operator. During those sessions any
scheduled air carrier or the airport operator in attendance may provide
other supplemental information to FAA regarding the targeted schedule
reductions at ORD. FAA requests the cooperation of all participants at
the meeting in adhering to the procedures outlined in this notice.
The text of the FAA letter describing the planned procedures and
the text of the Department of Justice letter assessing those procedures
are as follows:
February 26, 2026
Omeed A. Assefi, Esq., Acting Assistant Attorney General, Antitrust
Division, Room 3109, U.S. Department of Justice, 950 Pennsylvania
Avenue NW, Washington, DC 20530-0001
Dear Mr. Assefi:
The Secretary of Transportation has determined, pursuant to 49
U.S.C. 41722,\4\ that it is necessary to convene a meeting of air
carriers with the Administrator of the Federal Aviation Administration
(FAA) to discuss flight reductions at Chicago O'Hare International
Airport (ORD) in an effort to reduce overscheduling, flight delays and
cancellations during peak hours of operation. Because of severe
congestion at that airport and the resulting delays, cancellations, and
inconvenience to the traveling public, the Administrator intends to
convene such a meeting in the immediate future. The purpose of this
letter is to describe the format and procedures for the meeting and to
ensure that, provided the meeting is conducted in accordance with this
letter, the Department of Justice would not seek to challenge as a
violation of the U.S. antitrust laws any air carrier's attendance at or
participation in the meeting or an air carrier's unilateral actions
taken to comply with an Order of the Administrator issued as a result
of the meeting.
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\4\ Sec. 41722 Delay reduction actions.
(a) Scheduling Reduction Meetings--The Secretary of
Transportation may request that air earners meet with the
Administrator of the Federal Aviation Administration to discuss
flight reductions at severely congested airports to reduce
overscheduling and<bullet> flight delays during hours of peak
operation if--
(1) the Administrator determines that it is necessary to convene
such a meeting; and
(2) the Secretary determines that the meeting is necessary to
meet a serious transportation need or an important public benefit
(b) Meeting Conditions--Any meeting under subsection (a)
(1) shall be chaired by the Administrator,
(2) shall be open to all scheduled air carriers; and,
(3) shall be limited to discussions involving the airports and
time periods described in the Administrator's determination.
(c) Flight Reduction Targets--Before any such meeting is held,
the Administrator shall establish flight reduction targets for the
meeting and notify the attending air carriers of those targets not
less than 48 hours before the meeting.
(d) Delay Reduction Offers--An air earner attending the meeting
shall make any offer to meet a flight reduction target to the
Administrator rather than to another carrier.
(e) Transcript--The Administrator shall ensure that a transcript
of the meeting is kept and made available to the public not later
than 3 business days after the conclusion of the meeting.
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Meeting Procedures
1. Conduct of the Meeting
The meeting will be conducted under the following procedures:
a. The meeting will be chaired by the Administrator or by a
delegate of the Administrator.
b. The meeting will be open to attendance by the ORD airport
operator
[[Page 10438]]
and all scheduled air carriers, and FAA will transcribe the meeting.
c. Representatives of the Department of Justice will be invited to
attend.
d. At the beginning of the meeting, the FAA will announce that the
meeting and all preparations for it are subject to the antitrust laws
and that communications among carriers regarding competitively
sensitive information, such as markets served, prices charged, and
marketing plans, could result in a violation of the antitrust laws and
lead to civil or criminal liability. The FAA will further announce
that, pursuant to advice from the Department of Justice, no
communication will be permitted by any air carrier representative in
the presence of any representative of another air carrier regarding the
subject of flight reductions at ORD or regarding any other
competitively sensitive information, including but not limited to
markets served, prices charged, and marketing plans.
e. The Administrator will then distribute to the meeting's
attendees a list of the number of flights, not specific as to air
carrier, during each 30-minute period between 06:00 and 21:59 local
time on a representative business day, and he will identify any periods
that he considers severely congested, as well as general targets for
flight reductions during those periods. This list will not include
carrier-specific limitations, targets, or suggested reductions. f. Each
air carrier serving ORD and attending the meeting will then be invited
into a separate and confidential session with representatives of the
ATO at which the air carrier will be asked to offer flight reductions
or schedule modifications. Only representatives of that air carrier and
the U.S. Government will be permitted to attend the offer sessions;
however, the sessions will be transcribed.
g. Any offer of flight reductions should specify the precise number
of arrivals and departures, if any, the submitting air carrier is
willing to remove from each of the severely congested periods
identified by the Administrator, indicating whether the flight
operation(s) would be cancelled or moved to another time period. The
offer may not be explicitly contingent on specific flight reductions by
other air carriers, but may be conditioned on the Administrator's
implementation of an overall reduction of specified numbers of flight
operations toward the target during the periods in question. The offer
may not contain information from the air carrier on markets served
prices charged, marketing plans, or other competitively sensitive
matters.
h. After the completion of all such sessions, the FAA will: (1)
review the offers made; (2) revise, in light of the offers made, the
list of the number of flights, not specific as to air carrier, during
each 30-minute period between 06:00 and 21:59 local time on a
representative business day; and (3) consult with the Administrator.
The Administrator will distribute to the meeting's attendees the
carrier non-specific list of the number of flights on a representative
business day and he will identify any periods that he continues to
consider severely congested and identify targets for flight reductions
during those periods.
i. At his discretion, the Administrator or his delegate may repeat
steps (f) through (h) and he may continue the schedule reduction
meeting as he deems necessary.
j. If the Administrator determines that identifying carrier-
specific targets would facilitate voluntary flight reductions and
schedule modifications, the Administrator may advise each air carrier
separately and confidentially of flight reduction targets specific to
that air carrier. No carrier-specific information will be provided to
any air carrier other than information regarding that air carrier;
however, the Administrator may make general assurances with respect to
the overall proportionality of the flight reductions among the air
carriers serving ORD.
k. Following the Administrator's identification of further flight
reduction targets, each air carrier attending the meeting that serves
ORD will be invited to a separate and confidential session with
representatives of the FAA, at which the air carrier will be given the
opportunity to submit a new or revised offer of flight reductions or
schedule modifications.
l. At his discretion. the Administrator or his delegate may repeat
steps (j) and (k). and he may continue the schedule reduction meeting
as he deems necessary.
m. The Administrator may terminate the schedule reduction meeting
at his discretion.
2. Order of the Administrator Concerning Delays at ORD
The FAA will review the final offers of each air carrier attendee
of the meeting and recommend a proposed flight reduction plan to the
Administrator. After the Administrator's review and approval of the
plan, the resulting schedule reductions including carrier-specific
limitations, will be published in the Federal Register as a final order
of the Administrator. The final order of the Administrator will specify
a method by which air carriers adversely affected by the order may be
relieved of its effect. The order will also be subject to modification
by the Administrator.
Please advise if these procedures are acceptable to you.
Sincerely,
William McKenna,
Chief Counsel
February 26, 2026
William McKenna, Chief Counsel, U.S. Department of Transportation,
Federal Aviation Administration, 800 Independence Ave. SW, Washington,
DC 20591
Re: Proposed Chicago O'Hare International Airport Scheduling Reduction
Meeting
Dear Mr. McKenna:
This letter is written in response to your February 26, 2026 letter
describing the planned format of a meeting of air carriers with the
Administrator of the Federal Aviation Administration (``FAA'') to
discuss flight reductions at Chicago O'Hare International Airport
(``ORD''). The meeting is being called because the Secretary of
Transportation has determined, pursuant to 49 U.S.C. 41722, that the
meeting is necessary to address severe congestion at ORD and reduce
flight delays during peak hours of operation. We also understand that
the meeting is important to meet the serious and unusual situation
occurring at ORD right now. You seek assurances that, provided the
meeting and related activities are conducted as described in your
letter, the Department of Justice would not seek to challenge as a
violation of the antitrust laws any air carrier's attendance at or
participation in the meeting or any carrier's unilateral actions taken
to comply with an Order of the Administrator issued as a result of the
meeting.
According to your letter, representatives of the Department of
Justice will be invited to attend the meeting. At the beginning of the
meeting, the FAA's Administrator (or his delegee) will advise all
carriers participating in the meeting that the meeting and all
preparations for it are subject to the antitrust laws and that
communications among carriers regarding competitively sensitive
information, such as markets served, prices charged, and marketing
plans, could result in a violation of the antitrust laws and lead to
civil or criminal liability. The Administrator (or his delegee) also
will announce that, pursuant to advice from the Department of Justice,
no communication will be
[[Page 10439]]
permitted by any air carrier representative in the presence of any
representative of another air carrier regarding flight reductions at
ORD or any other competitively sensitive subject, including but not
limited to markets served, prices charged, and marketing plans.
At the meeting, the Administrator will distribute to the meeting's
attendees a list of the number of flights, not specific as to air
carrier, during each 30-minute period from 06:00 to 21:59 local time on
a representative business day, and indicate any periods that he
considers to be severely congested, and provide general targets for
flight reductions during those periods. This list will not identify
which carriers' flights are suggested or targeted to be limited, moved,
or eliminated. Each carrier in attendance will then be invited into a
separate, confidential discussion with the FAA Air Traffic Organization
(ATO) during which the carrier will be asked to offer specific flight
reductions or schedule modifications, which shall not be contingent on
reductions offered by another carrier or carriers. The offer may not
contain information from the air carrier on markets served, prices
charged, marketing plans, or other competitively sensitive information.
Representatives of the Department of Justice Antitrust Division will be
invited to attend each of these individual carrier offer sessions.
After completion of the individual carrier sessions, the ATO will
revise the list of flights to reflect the individual discussions with
the carriers. The carriers will again be given this list which will not
identify flights by carrier. If the Administrator believes that
severely congested time periods still exist, he may set revised targets
and have the ATO repeat the individual sessions with carriers. Again,
representatives of the Antitrust Division will be invited to attend any
repeated sessions.
If the Administrator determines that identifying carrier-specific
targets is necessary to facilitate voluntary flight reductions and
schedule modifications, he may advise each carrier separately and
confidentially of flight reduction targets specific to that carrier,
which information will not be given to any other carrier or carriers.
The Administrator may also make a general assurance with respect to the
overall proportionality of the flight reductions being sought by the
FAA from carriers serving ORD.
The Administrator will develop and approve a proposed flight
reduction plan and schedule reduction, which will be published in the
Federal Register as a final order. We believe that it also will be
important to competition for the FAA to publicly notify the airlines,
the Department of Justice, and the public when the need to restrict
flights at ORD has eased enough that the flight reduction and schedule
reduction plan is no longer required.
Importantly, the procedures do not provide for any meetings among
the carriers without the FAA and Antitrust Division present. The
procedures will not allow any discussion or negotiation among carriers
about flight reductions, prices charged, or markets served. During the
course of the meetings, carriers will not be told schedule reductions
or modifications other carriers are offering or being asked to offer.
For these reasons, the Department is not presently inclined to
initiate antitrust enforcement action against any carrier that
participates in the FAA's flight reduction meeting and conducts itself
in the manner described in your February 26, 2026, letter. This
expresses the Department's current enforcement intention regarding the
carriers' participation in the flight reductions meeting. The
Department reserves the right to bring an enforcement action against
any conduct that violated the antitrust laws.
Sincerely,
Omeed A. Assefi
Issued in Washington, DC, on February 27, 2026.
William McKenna,
Chief Counsel.
[FR Doc. 2026-04198 Filed 2-27-26; 4:15 pm]
BILLING CODE 4910-13-P
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