United Airlines Is Officially Ending All Service from JFK Airport
The airline had issued an ultimatum last month.
United Airlines is making good on its ultimatum, and will officially suspend all service from NYC's John F. Kennedy International Airport.
Earlier in September, United threatened to end its service at the airport if the FAA didn't grant the carrier more slots for expansion. This wasn't the first time United had made the request, according to Bloomberg. At the time, the FAA took a careful approach, citing airspace capacity assessments and fair competition between airlines.
United will cut its four daily flights from JFK starting on October 29. According to an internal message seen by Bloomberg, all 100 United employees based at JFK will be transferred to other locations.
According to United, the JFK schedule was too minimal for the carrier to be competitive with other airlines. At this time, United is not ruling out the possibility of coming back to JFK in the future, but the timing for this to happen isn't clear yet.
"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," United said in a memo, Crain's New York Business reports. "[But it's] clear that [the] process to add additional capacity at JFK will take some time."
Upon United's decision, the FAA said in a statement that it would keep "doing its part" to expand airspace capacity both in JFK and around New York City.