United announced today that they will be ending service to New York’s Westchester County Airport/HPN.
Their spokesperson shares with DansDeals that,
“Since we have a limited number of regional jets and pilots to fly them, we regularly evaluate how best to use those resources to provide convenient service to smaller airports across the country. Based on this analysis, we have decided to suspend service between White Plains and Chicago starting 7/1. Weāve already begun proactively contacting our customers to offer them alternative flights to Chicago from LGA, EWR and other nearby airports.”
United currently flies 3 times daily between Westchester County and Chicago. That route will only be flown by American starting 7/1.
While many passengers prefer flying from Westchester County, the airport makes it extremely difficult for airlines to operate from. There is a complicated quarterly lottery system that limits the total number of departing and arriving passengers at the airport to just 240 per half hour.
That effectively means airlines must operate smaller regional jet service from the airport, however since COVID, regional carriers have struggled to find pilots to operate their flights, leading to major cutbacks in airports with regional service. United has now pulled out of 39 airports with regional air service since COVID began.
Breeze Airways seemed like a good fit for Westchester thanks to flying smaller A220 planes, but they cut all 3 of their transcontinental routes from the airport, citing problems with the slot restrictions, crewing requirements due to slot restrictions, and frequent delays.Ā That left the airport with no transcontinental service.
With United now pulling out and other regional airlines struggling, do you think that the airport will modernize their draconian slot lottery system?
HT: Zach Griff
Leave a Reply
13 Comments On "United Will Pull Out Of White Plains/Westchester County Airport"
All opinions expressed below are user generated and the opinions arenāt provided, reviewed or endorsed by any advertiser or DansDeals.
The entire airport is the size of 1 gate at any normal size airport.
Dang – I have some business trips coming up later this year, and was hoping to go HPN-ORD. This royally sucks – it’s an awesome, and super-convenient airport, but the number of flights causes demand and costs to go way up, and it’s just kind of useless.
United currently flies 3 times daily to Chicago. That route will only be flown by American starting 7/1.
They will still fly to Chicago from other airports as Said in the email.
Well yes, United is pulling out of HPN, not ORD. š
Glad you clarified that! Lol
Noach. Appreciate your laughter . Though I mentioned your quote bcs it seemed confusing. Maybe you shoukd insert HPN in that line.
HPN is such an awesome airport what a shame
Any chance United looking for more of a footprint in JFK with this move?
They have wanted back into JFK for years, they just can’t get any slots.
When JFK is done with their new terminals in 4 years UNited will probably have the gate space to return and make deals with JFK
Are there any plans for expansion?
Shame, HPN is a great resource
Booked tickets on Friday from HPN-ORD. They sent me an email Shabbos afternoon saying my reservation was cancelled due to them pulling out of HPN. Rebooked me (at same price) for EWR, but it’s a shame as HPN was so much closer to Monsey (and definitely a cheaper uber…)