Here's the problem. Delta has a major presence in New York. On the other hand, O'Hare has been a spoke for Delta since it discontinued a lot of non-stop service in the late 80s and early 90s and shifted that flying to the Cincinatti hub. Delta built a 10-gate concourse (L), but wound up leasing half of the gates to American.

On the other hand, American has a major presence in both New York and Chicago. New York is a major gateway to Europe, has a number of flights to the Caribbean, and flies to a number of domestic destinations. O'Hare is American's second largest hub after DFW. It has a lot of corporate customers in both cities.

United's largest hub is at O'Hare. While it's presence in New York has declined over the years, it's recognized as having the greatest number of connecting flights to cities in the Midwest and Great Plains from O'Hare. It also has a lot of corporate customers in Chicago, the Midwest, and nationally.

And just to muddy the picture even further, Southwest has flown for some time from Midway to Islip and has started service to LaGuardia. I'm not sure how much of a following has in New York (as opposed to Long Island), but it has a loyal following in Chicago, as well as connecting cities.

I think Delta has a tough situation. There are a lot of passengers who have to fly American or United because of corporate contracts. The only reason that Delta has dominated O'Hare-Atlanta for years, despite being the non-hub carrier at O'Hare, is that it can move people from Chicago to far more points in the Southeast than United and American can.

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