Departmental Highlights
Snapshot: Appropriation & Staffing Changes from 2025 Budget
| 2025 Budgeted | 2026 Proposed | Net Change | Percent Change | Average Annual Rate of Change (2011-2025) | Inflation-adjusted Rate of Change (2011-2024) | |
| Appropriations | $1,547,505,037 | $1,666,194,101 | $118,689,064 | 7.7% | 11.3% | 6.0% |
| Positions & FTEs | 2392 | 2445 | 53 | 2.2% | 4.6% | NA |
- DoA’s budget and staffing continue to grow relative to most other departmental budgets and to the city budget as a whole, driven by increasing airport revenues.
- DoA added several new titles and pay bands in the 2026 budget proposal, including three Airport Manager positions. The largest net increases in budgeted positions came in the Project Manager (+13 positions), Aviation Security Officer (+10) and Project Coordinator (+5) titles.
- Apart from grant reserve balance, the largest budgeted appropriations increases at DoA were for IT maintenance (up $23.9 million, a 58.1% increase) and professional and technical services (up $19.6 million, or 4.9%). The department also has a new half-million dollar budget line item for vehicles, which are most commonly budgeted in the city’s Fleet and Facilities Management department.
- Rental of equipment and services was down significantly, -60.9 million (-51.8%) from the previous year’s budget.
Historical Context
As a self-funded department, the Department of Aviation’s budget resources are less dependent on overall city revenues. Appropriations are typically closely tied to revenues from O’Hare and Midway airport operations: the higher the city’s airport revenues, the more funds are available for DoA budgets.
Airport rates and charges saw the largest net increase in the city’s estimated revenues in the 2026 budget proposal, continuing a string of years of increasing airport revenues and corresponding appropriations increase.
From 2011-2025, DoA appropriations increased at an average rate of 11.3% annually (6% adjusted for inflation), much of that driven by steep growth in recent years. By comparison, the city budget as a whole increased over the same period by an average of 8.3% annually (inflation-adjusted 4.4%).
Over the past three complete budget years for which local fund actuals/encumbrances data is available, DoA spent on average 82% of its locally funded budget, compared to the citywide average 86.4% local fund spend. Local funds make up just over half of DoA’s total budget.
The department’s budgeted workforce has grown along with its appropriations, with the number of budgeted positions increasing by an annual average of 4.6% since 2011, compared to a citywide average annual change of -0.1%. The 2026 budget proposal continues the trend, adding a net 53 budgeted positions, a 2.2% increase while the overall proposed city workforce declined by -1.2%.
From February through September of 2025, the months for which the city released full-time position vacancy data, DoA averaged a 14.4% vacancy rate, compared to the citywide average of 11.2%.
158 of the department’s budgeted full-time positions were persistent vacancies, meaning that the same title/division/section/subsection combination was vacant for all eight months of available data.
Staffing
DoA added several new titles and pay bands in the 2026 budget proposal, including three Airport Manager positions.
The largest net increases in budgeted positions came in the Project Manager (+13 positions), Aviation Security Officer (+10) and Project Coordinator (+5) titles.
Appropriations
The aviation department is 55.2% locally-funded in this year’s budget proposal, with the rest coming from grants, up slightly from 53.8% local funding last year.
The dedicated O’Hare fund makes up the largest portion of DoA’s appropriations, with the Federal Grant Fund a close second. This year’s budget also anticipates a $61.9 million increase from the state grants fund, which was not a budgeted appropriations source in the 2025 DoA budget.
| Fund | 2025 Budgeted | 2026 Proposed | Net Change from 2024 | Percent Change from 2025 | Percent of 2026 Appropriations |
| Chicago O’Hare Airport Fund | $662,646,543 | $739,854,007 | $77,207,464 | 11.7% | 44.4% |
| Federal Grant Fund | $715,233,000 | $684,598,000 | -$30,635,000 | -4.3% | 41.1% |
| Chicago Midway Airport Fund | $169,625,494 | $179,811,094 | $10,185,600 | 6.0% | 10.8% |
| State Grant Fund | 0 | $61,931,000 | $61,931,000 | New Fund | 3.7% |
Largest Appropriations
DoA’s largest budgeted appropriation category in the 2026 proposal is reserve balance, an appropriation described last year by the Office of Budget and Management as representing grant funds not planned to be expended in the current budget year.
Apart from that reserve, the largest appropriation in DoA’s 2026 budget proposal is for professional and technical services, the city’s outside contracting category. Salaries and wages are the next-largest.
In 2024, the most recent year for which local fund actuals and encumbrances are available, DoA expended 85% of its contracting budget, and 89.6% of its personnel services budget. (Because the appropriation categories used in the 2022-2024 actuals datasets from the Department of Finance do not correspond exactly to the appropriation accounts used in the budgets presented by the Office of Budget and Management, an exact line-by-line comparison of real spend to budget is not possible.)
Change from Previous Year
Apart from reserve balance, the largest budgeted appropriations increases at DoA were for IT maintenance (up $23.9 million, a 58.1% increase) and professional and technical services (up $19.6 million, or 4.9%). The department also has a new half-million dollar budget line item for vehicles, which are most commonly budgeted in the city’s Fleet and Facilities Management department.
Rental of equipment and services was down significantly, -60.9 million (-51.8%) from the previous year’s budget.
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