United Airlines is quickly becoming a hot topic of discussion in the aviation industry. Recently the American aviation carrier declared that it enter into a codeshare agreement with Emirates to expand its reach and now it’s doing something not very complimentary to a former decision.
United Airlines has made its plans clear to halt services at the Kennedy International Airport in the district of New York by next month. It won’t change its decision unless the federal regulators allow the carrier company to operate more flights at the airport.
So yes there is a possibility that customers would not find flights from United airlines at the John F.Kennedy International airport after the end of October if the official doesn’t agree to more slots there for carriers to land and take off.
But this is not the first time United airlines had an issue with John F Kennedy international airport back in 2015. The issue was that United left JFK international airport to consolidate flights at its hub in Newark, New Jersey. But United airlines returned to form an agreement with JFK international airport in 2021 again. However, its relationship with JFK has not been as same as they were in 2015. Since its agreement in 2021 United airlines had been using fewer slots for landing and take-off for flights and had rented some of its agreed slots to Delta Air Lines when it left JFK international in 2015.
The Chief Executive Officer of United airlines Scott Kirby also sent a formal request a prior week to the acting administrator of the Federal Aviation Administration, Billy Nolen requesting more space and slots to be given to united at JFK airport.
“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 airline reportedly communicated to its employees on Tuesday via email. United also made a point in the memo that the JFK international airport had made several infrastructure investments since 2008, including widening of runaways, however, it has not resulted in an expansion in flight capacity.“That would obviously be a tough and frustrating step to take and one that we have worked really hard to prevent.” the staff memo further stated.
The said email also mentioned that United had back and forth talks with the Federal Aviation Administration regarding the increase in the number of runway slots within United airlines range “so that we can grow to be more competitive,”
The aviation carrier informed that if their needs are not met then “effectively compared to the larger schedules and more attractive flight times flown by our competitors” and Reuters reported that these competitors were JetBlue Airways and American Airlines. Currently, United Airlines at JFK international airport has flights twice a day to San Francisco and Los Angels as a round trip flight and “would obviously be a tough and frustrating step to take and one that we have worked really hard to prevent” Airlines said on how ceasing current service would be, accordingtoBloomberg.
In a pandemic, the situation was however different as United airlines had the opportunity to fly more of its carrier to JFK’s airport since other companies’ carriers were not flying and United fully used the airport’s unshared capacity but after travel has been revived those airlines started to reclaim their airspace authority.
The F.A.A has responded in a statement, claiming that they always try to explore multiple ways to ensure safety and efficiency in the airspace, especially in busy areas like New York. “The agency must consider airspace capacity and runway capacity to assess how changes would affect flights at nearby airports,” the statement clarified. “Any additional slots at J.F.K. would follow the F.A.A.’s well-established process of awarding them fairly and to increase competition”.
If any more flights are to be added to JFK, they would be distributed fairly and “must consider airspace capacity and runway capacity to assess how changes would affect flights at nearby airports.”Well the F.A.A allots each airline with limited flight slots to maintain and regulate airspace and avoid accidents and congestion.
When United Airlines broke its ties with JKF international airport to shift its operations to Newark its hub ., they had leased 24 of those slots permanently to Delta airlines. When United also tried to obtain back those 24 flight slots from Delta and have them transferred to Newark but F.A.A declined that deal in concerns about the monopoly of United airlines over Newark.
After returning to JKF in 2021, CEO Scott Kirby has claimed that leaving JFK and New York in 2015 was their worst decision and as if now they don’t have access to the leased slots to Delta airlines. Both airlines have declined on making any further comments.
