United Airlines Will No Longer Fly Out of NYC’s JFK Airport — Here's Why

Alison Fox
·2 min read
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The carrier will stop flying out of the major New York airport after its last inbound flights on Oct. 29.

<p>Anadolu Agency/Getty Images </p>

Anadolu Agency/Getty Images

United Airlines will no longer fly out of New York’s John F. Kennedy International Airport starting next month after requests to expand their operations were not initially honored by the hub.

The carrier will stop flying out of the major New York airport after its last inbound flights on Oct. 29, United wrote in a memo shared withTravel + Leisure. The decision came after United asked for additional slots at JFK, but said it was “clear that [the] process to add additional capacity at JFK will take some time.”

Currently, United operates four flights per day out of the airport. The bulk of United’s flights into the New York area are out of its Newark Liberty International Airport hub. United will also continue to fly out of New York’s domestic airport, LaGuardia 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 airline wrote in the statement provided to T+L. “We know this news is especially tough for the 100 employees who work at JFK today. We held a series of in-person meetings earlier today to ensure our team knows that no one is losing their job and that we’re going to work hard to make their transition to other nearby stations as smooth as possible.”

United said the suspension of flights out of JFK was temporary and the airline would “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.”

The move also follows a decision by the International Air Transport Association (IATA) to remove Newark from the NYC airport city code and give it its own. Travelers will still be able to see flight options for Newark when they search for flights to or from "NYC" on airline sites or through online travel agencies.