United Airlines adds 10 destinations from Chicago after winning airport gate dispute

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United Airlines adds 10 destinations from Chicago after winning airport gate dispute

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Scott Kirby, chief executive officer | United Airlines

By Sky Industry News

Oct 25, 2025

United Airlines has announced it will add 10 new destinations from its Chicago O'Hare International Airport hub starting next year. The expansion includes six cities that will be new to United's network from O'Hare: Eugene, Oregon; Lynchburg, Virginia; Monterey, California; Paducah, Kentucky; Santa Barbara, California; and St. George, Utah. Most of these flights will operate daily, except for the routes to Monterey and St. George, which will run seasonally on Saturdays.

The airline is also launching regional service to Idaho Falls, Idaho; Marquette, Michigan; Rochester, Minnesota; and Wausau, Wisconsin. All but the Idaho Falls route will have daily service; Idaho Falls flights are scheduled for Saturdays only.

In addition to these new routes, United plans to increase flight frequencies in several markets from Chicago next summer. Cities such as Hilton Head in South Carolina; Halifax in Nova Scotia; Sun Valley in Idaho; Nassau in the Bahamas; and Aruba will see weekend-only flights shift to daily service. West Palm Beach in Florida will become a year-round destination instead of just seasonal.

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This growth follows a recent gate reallocation at O'Hare that gave United five additional gates through the city's annual process. American Airlines expressed dissatisfaction with how the gates were awarded and challenged the decision in court. American argued there was an "improper trigger" tied to ongoing construction at O'Hare's L gates and said no new gates should be assigned until work was complete. However, a judge ruled in favor of United.

Patrick Quayle, United's network chief, commented on the development: "United is already flying its busiest schedule in history at O'Hare, and now these additional gates have unlocked new opportunities to intertwine cities across the country, serve more customers in Chicago and strengthen our hometown hub."

The expansion could affect American Airlines' ability to grow further at O'Hare due to limited gate availability.