United Airlines, which just returned to New York’s JFK International Airport last year after a five-year absence is threatening to leave again unless it gets permission for more daily flights.
At present, United is flying twice daily between JFK and Los Angeles and twice to San Francisco. In a memo to staff, the airline said that “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.”
The clock is ticking, but there’s been no formal response to United’s request from the FAA.
United had more flights from JFK for a number of months, using slots that other airlines had put on hold, but those are now being used again and United has asked the FAA to allow it more slots, saying that infrastructure improvements at the airport make it feasible to increase capacity.
In response, FAA says it is always exploring ways to safely and efficiently use airspace, but must also consider the effect on nearby airports. And, it said, any new slots wouldn’t necessarily go to United: “Any additional slots at JFK would follow the F.A.A.’s well-established process of awarding them fairly and to increase competition.”
United left JFK in 2016 as part of its buildup of its major hub at New York’s Newark Liberty Airport, trading its JFK slots to Delta for space that Delta held at Newark. United’s then CEO, Oscar Muniz, later said he regretted the move.
UPDATE
United has made it official: it will suspend operations at New York’s JFK at the end of October, killing—at least for now—two daily roundtrips to LA and two to San Francisco.
The fact that it was described as a suspension hints that it may wish to try again later, but for now, it said, “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.”