United Airlines will begin service out of New York's John F Kennedy International Airport next year, returning to the airport for the first time in five years, the carrier has announced.
Beginning 1 February, United will add services between JFK and both Los Angeles and San Francisco, with two daily flights to each city except for Tuesdays and Saturdays, when there will be one flight. The flights will use reconfigured Boeing 767-300ER aircraft that include premium cabin seating with lie-flat seats, which makes it comparable to United's flight offerings between Newark and the two West Coast cities.
United ended operations at JFK in 2015, turning over its slots at the airport to Delta Air Lines in exchange for Delta's slots at Newark Liberty National Airport, United's stronghold in the New York area—a deal that later was dropped amid a US Justice Department challenge. United's CEO Scott Kirby said at the time that leaving JFK was a "mistake," as it ceded to American Airlines some large corporate clients whose travellers preferred JFK to Newark, according to published reports at the time.
United has been working with regulatory authorities to get slots at JFK, VP of domestic network planning Ankit Gupta said on a media call on Tuesday. JFK has recently gained additional available capacity both through completed runway construction and from some international carriers reducing capacity, United chief communications officer Josh Earnest said.
As demand grows, United is likely to expand services from JFK, including to its hubs in Houston and Chicago, Gupta said.