Less than a month after threatening to take action, United Airlines on Friday announced that it will halt its services in late October to New York’s John F. Kennedy Airport (JFK) airport.
“Given our current, too-small-to-be-competitive schedule out of JFK, coupled with the start of the Winter season where more airlines will operate their slots as they resume JFK flying, United has made the difficult decision to temporarily suspend service at JFK,” the company said in a memo.
The company added that its discussion with Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) had been constructive but it will take time to receive the additional slots. Thus, it could not give a timeline regarding when it will resume the services again.
As reported by WION, United Airlines, one of the largest airline companies in the USA, in early September issued a warning to FAA saying it will suspend services at JFK if it did not receive permits for additional flights.
“If we are not able to get additional allocations for multiple seasons, we will need to suspend service at JFK, effective at the end of October,” said United Chief Executive Scott Kirby in a letter to FAA.
Read more: United Airlines to stop operations at JFK if flight allocation not increased
“That would obviously be a tough and frustrating step to take and one that we have worked really hard to prevent,” he added.
Ever since the JFK airport reopened after a COVID-19-induced hiatus in 2021, United Airlines is only flying twice daily to San Francisco and Los Angeles from the airport.
According to data, JFK is the busiest New York airport and a major airline only operating a small percentage of flights at the airport is not good for the business.
However, FAA took a measured stance in response to the letter and asserted that it “must consider airspace capacity and runway capacity to assess how changes would affect flights at nearby airports. Any additional slots at JFK would follow the FAA’s well-established process of awarding them fairly and to increase competition.”
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Despite making infrastructure improvements such as widening the runways, and multi-entrance taxiways, FAA and Port Authority have not increased the airport’s total flight capacity.
(With inputs from agencies)
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