Southwest Airlines Ends Chicago O'Hare Flights, And That's Not Surprising - Southwest

Southwest Airlines Ends Chicago O'Hare Flights, And That's Not Surprising

Ben Schlappig — Wed, 15 Jul 2026 23:53:05 +0000

Southwest Airlines is pulling out of one of the United States’ busiest airport, and if anything, I’m surprised the airline tried to fly there in the first place.

Continue reading: Southwest Airlines Ends Chicago O’Hare Flights, And That’s Not Surprising

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rebel — Mon, 16 Mar 2026 15:18:16 +0000

Does the subway go to Europe? UA has 67% more int'l NYC traffic while almost half of DL LGA flights are on RJs. Which are more like the subway? Yikes!

Jason — Mon, 16 Mar 2026 14:37:22 +0000

With the acknowledgement that I frequently flew out of MDW as a kid growing up (I even flew out of CGX; anyone remember CGX?), I have rarely understood the recent changes in Southwest... Ben is quite right when he writes that WN is not an ULCC, but without any international airline partners or membership in one of the three major alliances, WN is far better off (IMHO) by lowering their expenses and flying out of airports like DAL, MDW, HOU, LGA, OAK and similar, so-called "secondary" airports in and around major metropolitan areas. The only exceptions I can think of off the top of my head are LAX (due to the overall geographic sprawl of Los Angeles) and SEA (because PAE is can't handle the traffic, and it's simply too far away from anyone living south of SEA).

Tim Dunn — Mon, 16 Mar 2026 09:53:02 +0000

and you still can't grasp that DL understands its goal is not to compete with the NYC subway. Poor "little underequipped" rebel that doesn't have or understand what matters in life. DL in 2025 generated more system profits and revenue than UA despite DL flying 10% fewer ASMs and UA having a $1 billion labor cost advantage. In NYC, DL's share vs. LGA and JFK relative to low cost and ULCCs went up. UA hads an even smaller number of flights at EWR than in 2024 as a result of the FAA's action to cap flights because of UA's repeated meltdowns because of overscheduling. UA is upgauging which simply says it is carrying more leisure passengers on the same number of flights. The FAA is stepping in to prevent the same thing at ORD which very well could see a smaller operation in 2026 than in 2025 but you and UA execs will jump in and call that a victory and say that is what we were trying to do again even though they were scheduling for a 750 flight/day operation, 200 UA flights more than 2025 even though most of the increase was on tiny CRJs

nocomments — Mon, 16 Mar 2026 03:05:04 +0000

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rebel — Mon, 16 Mar 2026 01:36:44 +0000

More flights and less passengers/RPMs because UA dominates NYC int’l traffic. Heck, UA even had more domestic NYC passengers in Dec. Too bad none of DL’s LGA RJ ops can feed JFK int’l flights.

Peking Duck — Sun, 15 Mar 2026 21:40:07 +0000

Yeah there’s problems with the comments section.

Mark — Sun, 15 Mar 2026 19:30:14 +0000

Lately the comments section (other than the three featured comments) won’t display, so sorry if this has been already mention… but what about IAD? They’re pulling out of there too. Similar circumstances, with an established hub carrier and larger operation in the same area.

Jacob — Sun, 15 Mar 2026 18:52:25 +0000

On the flip side, the strategy of increasing flights at the main airport does seem to be working for them in the Bay Area. OAK is a Southwest fortress hub, and they're also the leading carrier at SJC, but historically they haven't had a huge presence at SFO. They've been slowly increasing their SFO presence and shifting some routes from OAK to SFO (such as BWI and BNA), and so far that seems to be going well for WN (and arguably caused AS to begin to retrench).

FGCUFlyer — Sun, 15 Mar 2026 17:38:25 +0000

Growing up in the north Chicago suburbs, MKE was 45 minutes north and ORD was 30 minutes south. My family would drive the extra 15 minutes when we needed the extra luggage by flying Southwest (when that was the differentiating factor). Many articles describe WN’s departure from ORD as confirmation that the airline is abandoning the North / Northwest suburbs population; however, many fail to realize its proximity to MKE. ORD was starting to cannibalize both MDW and MKE in a lot of leisure markets. It’s disappointing, but not the end of the world all things considered. Unpopular opinion, but it seems like it had to be done.