News / 'Senseless' flight restriction at Chicago was 'a political decision'

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President Trump’s strained relationship with local and state politicians may have been a factor in the Federal Aviation Authority’s (FAA) recent decision to reduce the number of flights into one of the country’s busiest gateways.

The aviation authority announced last month that Chicago O’Hare is to lose some 10% of its services – carriers told to reduce daily flights to some 2,700 from a high of 3,000 peak-day movements.

Local sources told The Loadstar the FAA’s decision could have been motivated by the president’s ongoing feud with Illinois governor JB Pritzker and Chicago mayor Brandon Johnson, whom, he said on social media, “should be in jail for failing to protect ICE officers!”.

One source familiar with the decision-making pointed out that the airport had invested heavily in a modernisation plan that allowed it to operate three runways simultaneously, and that even in bad weather it was still capable of operating two.

They claimed the FAA’s decision was “political”, and a consequence of Chicago and Illinois – both stood up to last year’s chaotic ICE enforcement programme as well as other Trump administration measures – being in “Trump’s crosshairs”.

One source told The Loadstar that even with the cuts, they did not expect any impact on international capacity as it would be domestic services facing the axe, but warned that those moving small packages, ecommerce, and mail would come under pressure.

“Without more information from federal government about what’s driving this – either an insufficient number of air traffic controllers, construction of terminals underway and overdue, or something else – it doesn’t seem to make a lot of sense,” they said.

“With carriers continuing to see strong demand and having to make decisions on the fly with regard to jet fuel prices, it deprives shippers and travellers of options,” they said, further adding to speculation over the FAA’s motivation.

However, it is widely felt that the FAA’s decision was also motivated to rein in the rapid expansion of United Airlines and American Airlines, which has been dubbed a “capacity race”, with both carriers welcoming the move.

But forwarders certainly have not: executive director of the US Airforwarders Association Brandon Fried calling it the result “of years of under-investment in infrastructure and failure to adequately staff air traffic control”.

“When demand outpaces what the system can safely handle, the result is disruption, reduced capacity, and higher costs that ripple across the supply chain,” Mr Fried added, warning that constraints in cargo were likely, with time-sensitive shipments under threat.

For its part, the FAA said the decision to push back the introduction of the cap was to “give operators sufficient time to modify their schedules due to certain crew scheduling already assigned for the summer 2026 scheduling season”.