United is adding 10 new and resuming domestic routes after securing additional gates at Chicago O’Hare earlier this year.
The airline confirmed Thursday morning that it is launching new year-round and seasonal flights, mostly targeting smaller markets in the West and Midwest.
Starting in the spring of 2026, United will connect Chicago with Santa Barbara, California; Eugene, Oregon; Paducah, Kentucky; Lynchburg, Virginia; Rochester, Minnesota; Wausau, Wisconsin; and Marquette, Michigan. Each of the routes will operate daily.
Wausau, Eugene, Paducah, and Santa Barbara were last served by the airline in 2022, according to schedule data from Cirium. The airline’s last scheduled flight between Chicago and Rochester was in 2021.
In the summer, new weekly seasonal service to St. George, Utah; Monterey, California; and Idaho Falls, Idaho, will begin. End dates for those routes were not given.
Currently, no other airline serves Santa Barbara, Eugene, Paducah, Lynchburg, St. George, or Monterey from Chicago O’Hare.
“United is already flying its busiest schedule in history at O’Hare, and now these additional gates have unlocked new opportunities to intertwine cities across the country, serve more customers in Chicago, and strengthen our hometown hub,” said Patrick Quayle, senior vice president of global network planning and alliances, in a news release.
United also said it will expand several weekend-only routes to daily service starting next summer. These destinations include Hilton Head, South Carolina; Halifax, Nova Scotia; Sun Valley, Idaho; Aruba; and Nassau, Bahamas. Additionally, West Palm Beach Florida will go from seasonal service to year-round daily service.
With the new routes factored in, United will serve 212 destinations from Chicago O’Hare in 2026. That total is up slightly from a pre-pandemic high of 208.
