American Airlines (AA, Dallas/Fort Worth) has opened a new maintenance, repair, and overhaul (MRO) hangar at Chicago O'Hare, its first new such facility constructed since the merger with US Airways (Phoenix Sky Harbor).

The USD215 million hangar is also the first new MRO facility at O'Hare for the last 30 years.

The 17,750-square-metre hangar replaced a smaller and older building. It is able to accommodate up to six narrowbody aircraft or three widebodies, or a mix of these two groups. The facility will also be able to maintain the fleet of B787-8s which American bases out of O'Hare. It is the only carrier to base B787s out of the Illinois gateway and plans to station up to thirteen -8s there in Summer 2019.

Recently, American also opened a new ground equipment maintenance building.

American Airlines currently operates 2,937 weekly departures out of O'Hare and has a 36.9% market share by capacity at the airport, behind United Airlines (UA, Chicago O'Hare) which operates 3,771 departures and has a 43% market share by capacity.

The investment comes ahead of the planned opening of an eight runway 9C/27C at O'Hare, due in 2020. The city also plans a major overhaul of the terminals. The entire investment plan is worth USD8.5 billion.