Chicago O’Hare International Airport (ORD), a major international airport about 17 miles northwest of downtown Chicago, is one of America’s most vital air transport hubs. The facility spans over 7,600 acres and acts as the city’s principal transportation hub, providing nonstop service to over 240 locations across the world every day.
The airport is consistently recognized as the best-connected in the US and one of the best-connected globally, with a wider range of flights than adjacent Chicago Midway Airport (MDW), which now acts as a regional hub.
According to Department of Transportation data from the end of 2023, O’Hare is the 4th busiest airport in the US by passenger traffic, surpassing even major airports like John F. Kennedy International Airport.
Originally built as a commercial airfield during World War II and later renamed after Medal of Honor recipient Edward O’Hare, the airport was one of the first real contemporary superhubs to open in the United States. It was among the first to use concourses and jet bridges, as well as to have direct access to the interstate highway system.
Between 1963 and 1998, Chicago O’Hare International Airport was the world’s busiest airport for passenger volume, with over 2,500 planes departing daily.
With convenient proximity to the Chicago Loop, the city’s core business center, the airport is very popular to business travelers who value the convenience it offers. As a result, Chicago O’Hare has become a key airport for legacy carriers seeking to grab the lucrative business travel sector.
One legacy carrier is not interested in competing for the Chicago market.
Chicago O’Hare Airport serves as a major hub for United Airlines and American Airlines, two of the largest airlines in the US.
These two airlines each serve dozens of global destinations from Chicago and have flagship lounges at the airport, proving their commitment to capture a sizable portion of the profitable premium travel demand generated by the facility.
United Airlines’ headquarters are located just down the road at the Willis Tower in downtown Chicago, demonstrating the airline’s strong presence in the city market.
Other airlines have significant investments in the Chicago air travel market, recognizing not only the vast number of passengers going to and from Chicago, but also the value that the city can bring by offering connecting flights.
Ultra-low-cost carriers Spirit Airlines and Frontier Airlines both have operating bases at O’Hare Airport, which is exceedingly unusual given that these two airlines generally avoid direct competition at all costs. Southwest Airlines, a major low-cost carrier, operates a hub at Chicago Midway Airport and serves destinations nationwide.
Despite this, one notable airline operates few flights from the Chicago area as a whole and does not have an operating base, target city, or major hub in the metropolitan region.
Delta Air Lines, a carrier noted for its unique network strategy and meticulous decision-making, has long avoided the Chicago air travel market, with no hubs at Chicago O’Hare or nearby Midway Airport.
The carrier now runs only a few flights from the city’s two biggest airports, and this is unlikely to alter in the future. In this post, we’ll go deeper into Delta Air Lines’ choice not to run a Chicago hub.
A very competitive market that Delta has no interest in battling for.
To understand why Delta has little interest in fully entering the Chicago market, consider the company’s overall route and network strategy. Delta, like United and American, uses a classic hub-and-spoke model, which has been the industry standard since the early days of commercial aviation.
Carriers such as Delta route passengers through huge hubs to connect them to the greatest number of destinations possible, allowing as many passengers as possible across the Delta network to reach the majority of cities with a single connection.
However, deciding where to locate its hubs proves to be a considerably more difficult task altogether. Some airlines, such as United, have traditionally located their hubs in the largest cities in the United States, which have the most significant economic footprints.
United Airlines, for example, has hubs in the New York, Los Angeles, Chicago, San Francisco, Washington, D.C., and Houston metro areas. Delta employs a different strategy, concentrating its hubs in smaller, regional economic powerhouses.
Delta does this because to the highly competitive nature of the market in several of the country’s major cities.
While some cities, such as New York and Los Angeles, are simply too large and enticing for Delta to pass up, outside these two metropolitan areas, the airline is wary of entering highly competitive markets and competing with other carriers. To gain a better picture of how this works, take a closer look at the airline’s market share at some of its major hubs:
| Delta Air Lines hub: | Delta market share: |
|---|---|
| Atlanta Hartsfield-Jackson International Airport (ATL) | 72.93% |
| Detroit Metropolitan Wayne County Airport (DTW) | 55.70% |
| Minneapolis-St. Paul International Airport (MSP) | 58.08% |
| Salt Lake City International Airport (SLC) | 56.67% |
Delta Air Lines carefully selects its hubs, and when it decides to serve a specific region, it wants to ensure that it has a large enough market share to justify its time. In Chicago, however, the airline has mainly decided that the amount of money required to obtain such a big market share is unlikely to be worth the time. One can plainly see how extensively fragmented the market is at Chicago O’Hare.
| Airline: | Market share at Chicago-O’Hare: |
|---|---|
| United Airlines | 40.58% |
| American Airlines | 22.76% |
| SkyWest Airlines | 9.29% |
| Envoy Air | 4.73% |
The airline still maintains a minor presence in Chicago.
Simply because Delta Air Lines does not have a hub at Chicago O’Hare or Chicago Midway does not imply that the airline has abandoned the profitable market. The airline now operates flights to the following main hub airports from Chicago O’Hare:
- Atlanta (ATL)
- BOSTON (BOS)
- Detroit (DTW)
- Minneapolis / St. Paul (MSP)
- New York—John F. Kennedy (JFK)
- New York–LaGuardia (LGA)
- Salt Lake City(SLC)
- Seattle / Tacoma (SEA)
Interestingly, the airline is one of just three big heritage carriers to fly to and from Midway Airport. The carrier operates flights from the site to its hubs in Atlanta, Detroit, and Boston. As a result, the carrier can compete with the major legacy carriers on routes that do not depart immediately from Chicago.
If United or American do not serve a location directly from their Chicago hub, Delta can also provide a one-stop service.According to Airways Magazine, the airline has invested around $50 million in its Terminal 5 facilities at O’Hare, which include a new Sky Club.
So, what’s the bottom line for Delta and Chicago?
At the end of the day, Delta saw no reason to construct a hub in Chicago, as it would have had to compete with two other airlines that had already established themselves in the city. Furthermore, Delta is better placed expanding its footprint in the Upper Midwest via its Detroit and Minneapolis hubs, from which it can coordinate cross-country flights.
The airline has a history of establishing a strong foothold in whatever market it enters, and doing so in Chicago would require a significant amount of effort. With Chicago’s population continuing to decline, it is unlikely that the competitive climate will prompt Delta to establish a hub in the city anytime soon.
The airline has a historical strategy of ensuring that it establishes a major position in any market that it tries to enter, and, when it comes to Chicago, doing so would require a tremendous amount of effort. With Chicago’s population continuing to shrink, it is unlikely that the competitive situation will encourage Delta to create a hub in the city at any point soon.