Department of Aviation – BGA Policy 2027 Budget Snapshot

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.

Multiple consecutive years of increasing revenues from airport rates and charges have seen consecutive increases in DoA's budget as well.

From 2011-2026, DoA appropriations grew at an average rate of 7.6% annually, or 5.3% when adjusted for inflation through 2025, compared to a citywide average rate of 5.5% (inflation-adjusted 3.2%). The current proposal would increase the department's appropriations by 6.9% from the previous year.

Estimated Fringe Costs

City budgets do not break out "fringe" pension and benefit costs for non-grant positions by department, instead grouping them together as citywide expenses under the Finance General section of the budget. To better reflect the real cost of service for departmental operations, BGA Policy has included an estimate of pension and benefit costs for the years 2018-2026, using Department of Finance fringe memos from each relevant year. An estimated fringe cost for the 2027 proposal uses the average annual rate of increase for each of the inputs into the fringe formulae.

Based on the city's fringe formulae, the DoA fringe cost for nongrant employees averaged 7.8% from 2018-2026, compared to a citywide average of 26.8%. (Departments with a larger proportion of their budget dedicated to non-employee costs or with a larger proportion of grant-funded employees tend to have lower fringe costs, as their pension/benefit costs are either already factored into grant funds or are a smaller percentage of the overall departmental budget.)

Local Fund Actual Spend

Over the past four complete budget years for which local fund actuals/encumbrances data is available, DoA spent on average 82.4% of its locally funded budget, compared to the citywide average 86.6% local fund spend.

Budgeted Positions & Vacancies

Staffing levels at DoA have increased as the department's dedicated revenues and appropriations increase. Aviation is the city's fourth-largest department by budgeted headcount, following the police, fire, and water management departments.

Overall, DoA's budgeted headcount grew at an average annual rate of 3.6% from 2011-2026, compared to a citywide average annual change of -0.1%. The current proposal would increase budgeted headcount by 1.4% from the previous year.

From January through September of 2026, the months for which full-time position vacancy data is currently available, DoA averaged a 14.1% vacancy rate, compared to the citywide average of 11.2%.

211 of the department's budgeted full-time positions were persistent vacancies (defined as the number of positions within the same combination of title, subsection, section, division, department, and fund codes that remained vacant in all nine months of available data). Of those, roughly 30% were Aviation Security Officer positions, with at least 62 positions vacant in the title each month from January through September: