United Airlines CEO Scott Kirby recently highlighted a significant issue plaguing Chicago O’Hare International Airport — lengthy taxi times for aircraft. He attributed the primary cause of these delays to understaffing within the Federal Aviation Administration (FAA).
During a speech at the Executive Club of Chicago on November 10, Kirby urged the FAA to address this critical challenge. As travelers have been experiencing increasingly long taxi times at O’Hare, especially in light of ongoing extensive terminal expansions and modernization projects known as ORDNext, planes often find themselves needing to navigate around construction zones for extended periods before they can reach the gate.
The Executive Club of Chicago stands as one of the city’s most influential nonprofit business forums and member organizations for executives, founded in 1911. With over a century of history, its mission is to connect and cultivate regional business, civic, and academic leaders, fostering strategic collaborations across various industries. The club regularly hosts significant lectures, panel discussions, and annual economic outlook forums, inviting globally recognized entrepreneurs, economists, and business leaders to share forward-looking insights.
According to reports from the Chicago Tribune, which covered Kirby’s address, he specifically targeted the staffing shortages at O’Hare’s south control tower. He asserted that if this tower were properly manned, waiting times for taxiing aircraft could be reduced by approximately 6 to 7 minutes.
Data from the FAA reveals that O’Hare ranks among the airports with some of the longest taxi times in the United States, averaging around 20 minutes for taxi-in — the time from landing until reaching the gate — and about 28 minutes for taxi-out — the period from leaving the gate to takeoff. This airport is unique in the country for its prohibition against taxiing aircraft crossing runways, necessitating lengthy detours that contribute to delays.
Kirby, however, opted to sidestep discussions about the intense competition between United Airlines and American Airlines at O’Hare, even though the FAA considers this rivalry to be one contributing factor to the airport’s congestion issues.
As the busy summer travel season of 2026 approaches, both airlines have introduced hundreds of new flights. However, due to capacity constraints, the FAA has imposed limits on the number of daily departures.
In the broader context of the U.S. civil aviation system, the FAA, airlines, and airports each play critical roles as regulators, operators, and infrastructure providers, respectively. The FAA is tasked with creating and enforcing flight safety regulations, providing airworthiness and certification for aircraft and pilots, managing U.S. airspace through air traffic control centers and airport towers, and ensuring the safe takeoff, landing, and routing of flights.
Airlines either own or lease passenger and cargo aircraft, hiring pilots and flight attendants to offer commercial transportation services to the public and businesses. They must obtain operational permits from the FAA, ensure pilots and aircraft meet certification requirements, comply with FAA air traffic control instructions, rent airport facilities such as runways and gates, and pay landing fees and rents to airport authorities.
Airports act as the providers of infrastructure and facilities, offering runways, taxiways, terminals, and gates for the takeoff and landing of aircraft, along with services for passenger and cargo movement. Most major airports in the U.S. are owned and operated by local governments or public agencies, and both the construction and operation of these airports must adhere to safety standards and regulations set forth by the FAA.