FAA to ask airlines to reduce flights at Chicago's O'Hare airport this summer

CHICAGO (WLS) -- The Federal Aviation Administration will be asking airlines to reduces flights at Chicago's O'Hare airport this summer.

There are concerns the flight schedule in place would exceed the airport's capacity and stress the safety systems, including runways, terminals and air traffic control, at the airport.

There is a meeting scheduled for next week to discuss the requested reduction. After that, the FAA could issue a formal order.

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This comes as United and American airlines are in a fierce turf war for who will dominate O'Hare, which is undergoing an expansion, and control the most gates. Both airlines are trying to add as many flights as they can in order to come out on top.

Current schedules for this summer are over 3,080 daily operations on peak days, said the FAA in the document, citing Cirium. Last year, the summer daily peak was 2,680 operations. The agency proposes limiting operations to 100 hourly departures and arrivals, which make about 2,800 daily operations.

"O'Hare was slow to come back from the pandemic, and now suddenly it's the hottest airport in America. It outperformed every other major hub in the last year. The expansion I'm seeing by both United and American are just off the charts in many ways. And the FAA is having to blow the whistle saying, you know, there may just not be enough capacity for all this," DePaul University Transportation professor Joe Schwieterman said. "United picked up some new gates, some former American gates, so they're expanding more, but American's made no secret that they want to grow that schedule, so they can win some of those gates back, and this summer's where a lot of the action's going to happen."

It's unclear how the flight reductions will impact passengers, who have already purchased tickets for this summer. Though, airlines do have time to iron that out.

Both airlines are commending the FAA.

United said in a statement, "We appreciate Secretary Duffy and FAA Administrator Bedford's leadership in convening this meeting. We share their commitment to running a safe and reliable operation out of ORD and look forward to a collaborative discussion."

A spokesperson for American Airlines said, "American commends Secretary Duffy, Administrator Bedford and the FAA for taking proactive action to ensure the operational integrity of the airfield and airspace in Chicago. The FAA now has the opportunity to achieve an improved customer experience for passengers traveling from, to, and through Chicago this summer."

The Chicago Department of Aviation says O'Hare is well equipped to handle future traffic growth and will work with the federal government and airlines on a revised summer schedule.

The Chicago Department of Aviation said in a full statement, "The City of Chicago, working in close partnership with its airline stakeholders and the federal government, has invested more than $6 billion to modernize the airfield at O'Hare International Airport. This transformative effort created a comprehensive eight-runway system, enabling O'Hare to support more flight operations than any other airport in the nation.

"Under Mayor Johnson's leadership, O'Hare is well-positioned to accommodate traffic growth beyond 2025 levels. To maximize that runway investment, the CDA continues to advance the ORDNext capital program, which includes construction of two new satellite concourses and a new Global Terminal to replace Terminal 2. The CDA looks forward to continued collaboration with the U.S. Department of Transportation and airline partners in the days ahead to finalize a temporary adjustment to the summer schedule at O'Hare that ensures safe and efficient operations while taking into account current gate availability, air traffic control staffing capacity, and ongoing construction activity."

ABC News contributed to this report.