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United Airlines has cut some frequencies from its schedule in the New York and Washington, D.C. metropolitan areas during the busy Northern Hemisphere summer travel season.
“The FAA is making the changes in support of its efforts to reduce air traffic,” the Chicago-based carrier said on April 6 at New York-area airports.
Last month, the Federal Aviation Administration took the unusual step of allowing airlines to temporarily release some takeoff and landing space at major hubs in the northeastern United States due to air traffic control (ATC) manpower shortages. In this way, the regulator hopes to reduce the total amount of traffic in the region and, in turn, possible delays and cancellations.
“In many cases, we replace the frequencies with larger aircraft to minimize disruption to our customers’ travel plans,” United says.
“Taking into account the reduction, which affects less than 2 percent of our customers at New York’s LaGuardia Airport, Newark Liberty International Airport and Washington’s Reagan National Airport, United said it will contribute 5% more seats than it did during the same period of travel,” he said. Pre-pandemic 2019
United said it would cut its peak daily departures from New York and Newark by 30, bringing the total to 408. It will reduce LaGuardia-Washington Dulles flights from nine daily flights to six, and Newark-Washington National flights to 10 from 18.
No international flights will be affected, the airline said, not going out of business as a result of the discount.
Sirius fleet data shows that United’s regional carrier partners are feeling the pressure of the cuts. GoJet Airlines, Mesa Airlines, and Republic Airways operate the Dulce-LaGuardia and Newark-Washington national routes exclusively for United.
As of last week, United had scheduled those airlines to operate 526 flights between Dulles and LaGuardia and 1,028 between Newark and National in May. Now there are 389 flights between Dulles and LaGuardia (down 26 percent) and between Newark and National to 758 (also down 26 percent).
United cut its total number of flights at its Newark hub by 3% in May, to about 25,500, including 3% of its mainline flights and 5% of its flights to both Republic and Mesa. United’s seat count at Newark was down just 2 percent in May, Sirius data shows.
The Regional Airlines Association, which represents smaller regional carriers such as GoJet, Mesa and Republic, did not immediately respond to a request for comment.
Earlier this week, New York-based JetBlue Airways said it plans to reduce its summer flight schedule to New York due to an FAA request.
In the year On March 22, the FAA said it would allow airlines operating from four major airports in the northeastern United States to use up to 10% of their assigned seats during summer travel due to staffing bottlenecks at ATC facilities.
The U.S. aviation regulator on March 22 issued a “limited, conditional evacuation” minimum space usage requirement at John F. Kennedy International Airport, LaGuardia Airport and Newark Liberty International Airport in the New York area, and at Ronald Reagan Washington National Airport near Washington. DC.
The relaxed measures were “due to the post-epidemic effects on air traffic control personnel at the New York Terminal Radar Approach Control (TRACON) facility,” he said.
Typically, airlines must use designated areas at airports with limited traffic 80% of the time. Aviation regulators have allowed airlines to operate without long-term penalties when air traffic has slowed significantly due to global travel restrictions during the global Covid-19 pandemic.
Additional reporting by Jon Hemmerdinger
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