CHICAGO — Five years after it began flying out of Chicago’s O’Hare International Airport, Southwest Airlines said Friday it will discontinue service from the airport later this year.

“Operating at Chicago O’Hare continues to be challenging, and we are confident we can serve Chicagoland through Chicago Midway,” a Southwest Airlines spokesperson said in a statement.

Service to Chicago O’Hare will be discontinued effective June 4, the Dallas-based airline said. All affected employees will have the opportunity to bid for open positions across the Southwest network, including at Midway, the airline said in the statement.

Southwest has operated out of Midway for more than 41 years and serves more than 80 nonstop destinations from that airport, including all 15 destinations currently served from O’Hare.

Even as it launched service from O’Hare in February 2021, Southwest said it intended to keep Midway as its primary airport in the Chicago area. The pandemic had reduced flight activity at O’Hare, giving Southwest an opening, the airline said at the time.

But over the past year, both United Airlines and American Airlines have significantly increased their flight schedules at O’Hare as they compete over gate space at the airport. And in 2025 O’Hare was the busiest U.S. airfield in terms of takeoffs and landings, overtaking Atlanta’s Hartsfield-Jackson airport for the first time since 2019.

Last month, the Federal Aviation Administration said flight cuts were necessary at O’Hare, citing planned schedules this summer that “will exceed the airport’s capacity.” O’Hare also is in the early stages of a massive modernization project.

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