United Airlines has made it clear they don’t make empty threats.
In September, United CEO Scott Kirby wrote a letter Acting FAA Administrator Billy Nolen, requesting additional slots at The John F. Kennedy International Airport.
Kirby felt like United (UAL) wasn’t getting enough slots at the airport, which is airline industry terminology for take offs and landings. And Kirby indicated that if the situation didn’t get remedied, United would have to pull all of its slots from JFK.
And now, United has made good on this promise.
United To Pull All Slots From JFK
Effective October 29, United will pull all of its slots from JFK.
This move will affect four daily flights. United has long had more of a presence in New York’s other airport LaGuardia Airport (a hub that has long been the butt of jokes, but has gotten very nice in the past few years) and New Jersey’s Newark Liberty International Airport. As such, the 100 employees based at JFK will be transferred, and there will be no loss of jobs.
United has indicated that the move is temporary, though it did not indicate when the course might be reversed.
In a memo obtained by Gulf News, the company stated “We will continue our pursuit of a bigger and more desirable schedule for our customers and be ready to seize those opportunities if and when they surface,” adding that its “clear that process to add additional capacity at JFK will take some time.”
The FAA Says It's Doing What It Can
United has said that by not having an adequate number of slots, it cannot serve JFK “effectively compared to the larger schedules and more attractive flight times flown by our competitors,” said Kelly in an e-mail.
At the moment, United is only flying twice daily to San Francisco and Los Angeles from JFK. In contrast, Delta (DAL) has aggressively begun expanding its international offerings at the airport, offering new flights to London’s Gatwick Airport, Berlin and Geneva.
In response, the FAA indicated that it is doing what it can. “We will follow our fair and well-established process to award future slots to increase competition between airlines so passengers have more options,” the agency said in a statement.
Though JFK has recently been renovated, including a widening of runways and other infrastructure improvements, the airport hasn't added any additional overall slots since 2008. But in an e-mail from September, Kelly argued that that there is room for it to grow at JFK, citing the “construction of multi-entrance taxiways, and the creation of aligned high-speed turnoffs."
Previously, United had shifted its focus to Newark. In two transactions in 2014 and 2015, it leased the rights to 40 daily takeoffs and landings at JFK to Delta Air Lines in two long-term deals. But now it seems the company has changed its mind a bit about going all in on Newark.
In other news, as recently reported by The Street, United was recently ranked as one of the American airlines with the fewest traffic delays.
