Building infrastructure at a costly airport for only a handful of flights was a problem. However, a lack of slots foiled United’s attempts to expand its JFK operations. But the prospect of rising post-pandemic demand made United return to JFK, flying twice daily from there to San Francisco and Los Angeles. To compensate, the airline built up its operations dramatically in Newark. United used to have more extensive operations in JFK – before leasing its slots to Delta Airlines, in 2015. “slot restricted”) airport, an airline needs a “slot pair”: one slot to fly in, and another to fly out again. If you’ve missed the discussion, a slot is an airport movement – either a take-off or a landing. It was a big discussion topic in Europe during the pandemic, with disagreements on how to handle slots as events progressed.
We have looked at airport slots in a number of previous articles. United previously leased its slots at John F. Kennedy Airport, this was a costly mistake. And thanks to demand for slots at John F. But apparently, this is something that at least one airline did at JFK, with a number of slots it had there. Remember that time when you had something worth a few million dollars and you just left it at the airport, because you forgot you had it? No? Well, not many have. One is very frustrated, while the other is red-faced in embarrassment! This week, two US airlines made some noise regarding their JFK slots.
