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American Airlines, Delta Air Lines, and United Airlines have each launched new routes in the week of August 5 to 11. The changes come as Chicago O'Hare, the busiest airport in the US for aircraft movements, sees a notable increase in activity compared to last year. While the ten busiest airports in the country have added only a small percentage of movements since last August, O'Hare's growth stands at over 9%, driven by expansions from both American and United.
Three out of five new routes introduced by these airlines involve Chicago O'Hare. American Airlines began service between Chicago O'Hare and Idaho Falls on August 6, marking its third route from O'Hare to Idaho this year. The last time Idaho Falls had direct service to O'Hare was in 1990, when American operated MD80 series aircraft on the route. According to the US Department of Transportation, an average of just 22 round-trip passengers traveled between these two airports daily between April 2024 and March 2025. The airline expects that nonstop flights will help increase local traffic and provide more convenient connections to cities such as Greater Washington, DC; Orlando; Atlanta; New York City; and Minneapolis.
United Express started flights between Chicago O'Hare and Lafayette (Purdue University) on August 5 with eleven weekly SkyWest CRJ200 operations. This year-round service replaces Southern Airways Express, which ended its flights on August 4. Lafayette previously had commercial flights until 2004 but saw no scheduled service until May 2024 when Southern Airways Express briefly resumed operations using nine-seat Caravans. Despite offering up to four daily departures during that period, only about 43% of seats were filled according to data from the US Department of Transportation.
