Summary

  • JFK was once a hub for United Airlines, but due to a small schedule and competition from other airlines, the carrier temporarily suspended its services.
  • United Airlines currently operates primarily out of Newark Liberty International Airport, where it is the largest carrier and accounts for over 68% of the airport’s traffic.
  • The airline operates up to nine daily flights from Newark to Los Angeles and San Francisco, using a mix of aircraft including the Boeing 757, 777, and 787. It also has a limited presence at LaGuardia Airport.

New York John F. Kennedy International Airport (JFK) was the sixth-busiest airport in the US in 2023, processing more than 63 million passengers, putting it just ahead of its pre-pandemic peak. The airport is also the country’s largest by international passenger traffic.

United Airlines Boeing 757-200

Photo: Vincenzo Pace | Simple Flying

United Airlines’ primary hub in the New York City area is Newark Liberty International Airport (EWR). However, the carrier has also had a presence at JFK in the past. What did this split operation look like, and why did the JFK services come to an end?

United Airlines at JFK

In the past, United Airlines connected JFK with both San Francisco (SFO) and Los Angeles (LAX), but withdrew from the airport for the first time in 2015, swapping slots with Delta Air Lines.

After the pandemic, the carrier returned to JFK in 2021, taking advantage of additional slots that had become available due to the downturn in traffic. However, the service was limited, with just two daily flights to and from each of the airline’s West Coast hubs. The flights were operated by United Airlines’ transcontinental Boeing 757s, which featured just 16 Polaris pods in a 2-2 configuration, in addition to 160 seats in economy class.

United Airlines Boeing 757-200

Photo: Vincenzo Pace | Simple Flying

After just 19 months, both services were stopped completely in October 2022, with the carrier consolidating the bulk of its New York City operations at EWR. United Airlines’ 100 employees based at JFK were offered relocations to other airports in the New York City area. At the time, the airline explained its decision in a statement, as reported by Reuters:

“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. 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.”

Although the withdrawal was billed by the airline as temporary, a return would be challenging unless the airline is able to acquire a significant number of take-off and landing slots.

Prior to its departure from JFK, the airline had been working with the Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) to acquire more slots at the busy airport, stating that it was unable to compete with the likes of Delta Air Lines, JetBlue, and American Airlines. These three airlines dominate the schedules at JFK, representing 29.6%, 26.3%, and 12.8% of passengers last year, respectively.

United Airlines Boeing 767-300ER landing

Photo: Angel DiBilio | Shutterstock

Despite United Airlines’ departure from New York JFK, the airport’s routes to both San Francisco and Los Angeles remained the busiest domestic routes last year, followed by three destinations in Florida. The five busiest routes in terms of number of passengers were:

  1. Los Angeles (LAX) – 1,395,000 passengers
  2. San Francisco (SFO) – 971,000 passengers
  3. Miami (MIA) – 875,000 passengers
  4. Orlando (MCO) – 722,000 passengers
  5. Fort Lauderdale (FLL) – 601,000 passengers.

However, despite being the busiest domestic routes from JFK, both Los Angeles and San Francisco were beaten by two international destinations, highlighting just how much of a major international hub the airport is. These two international routes were to London Heathrow (2,300,000 passengers) and Paris Charles de Gaulle (1,446,000 passengers).

Consolidating its operation at EWR

United Airlines is by far the largest carrier at Newark Liberty International Airport, accounting for more than 68% of the airport’s traffic in 2023. In second and third place were Spirit Airlines and JetBlue, with 5.7% and 4.8%, respectively.

United Airlines Boeing 787-10

Photo: Vincenzo Pace I Simple Flying

Today, United Airlines operates up to nine flights per day on its two most lucrative transcontinental routes from Newark to Los Angeles and San Francisco. Services are operated by a mix of aircraft, including the Boeing 757, 777, and 787.

The carrier also has a limited presence at LaGuardia Airport (LGA), operating flights to Chicago (ORD), Denver (DEN), Houston (IAH), and Washington, DC (IAD). These routes represented a market share of just 7% at LaGuardia Airport last year, some way behind the three largest operators, which were:

  • Delta Air Lines (41%)
  • American Airlines (22%)
  • JetBlue (11%).

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