UFT Accused of Double Standards Pertaining to Location of NYC Charter Schools

By: Hadassa Kalatizadeh

United Airlines customers in New York best get used to flying in and out of Newark, New Jersey.

As reported by Crain’s NY, United stopped flying out of John F Kennedy Airport as of late 2022, and it has only a handful of flights daily through LaGuardia Airport.  Though many NY travelers do their best to avoid Newark Airport, United customers may not have much of a choice.  The Chicago-based airline dominates the scene at Newark Airport, and this has helped it to forge its position as the second biggest player in passenger air travel between the United States and Western Europe. United flights now account for 14% of flights between the U.S. and Western Europe, as per schedule data for the month of April compiled by OAG, an aviation analytics firm.

The percentage share is up 3 percent compared to the same period in 2019, and it places United Airlines just one percentage point below Delta’s 15 percent. “They’ve really moved their position,” said Deirdre Fulton, a partner at Midas Aviation and an OAG representative. “They’ve gone from being second-equal to American and British Airlines to having a bigger share—which is being driven by their Newark push.”

United’s main and largest hubs continue to be Chicago, Denver and Houston, but now the OAG data shows that about 35% of all the airline’s transatlantic operations moves through Newark, making it a major hub. Overall, United flights through Newark make up about 5 percent of all passenger air traffic between the U.S. and Europe.

For the airline, this is an achievement made possible thanks to the goal set forth by the new chief executive, Scott Kirby, who took the position in 2020. Rather than trying to compete in the ultra-low-cost markets, the airline set its focus on business travel and trying to lure frequent flyers.  “They’re going to look at premium customers, the business traveler, people who are going to pay a little more for that wider seat,” said Michael Boyd, president of The Boyd Group, an aviation research firm.

Of course, the airline has had to tackle the issue of NY travelers dreading the New Jersey airport, which was ranked as one of the worst U.S. airports for travel experience.  In a bid to dispel this stigma, United recently relaunched its ad campaign featuring, “time to travel United out of Newark”.  The advertisement uses real-time traffic data to compare driving times from Manhattan to the region’s airports, aiming to show a minimal difference.  “We get labeled as a Jersey airport. And yes, we are New Jersey through and through, and we are certainly proud to be in New Jersey,” said Anthony Fleet, a spokesman for United.  But, “It’s relatively easy to get from Newark to Manhattan.It’s just one of those things where it actually can be more time-effective to get to Newark from New York.”  The Port Authority is helping out too, with a 2.7 billion renovation of Newark Airport’s Terminal A.

With New York widely considered the financial capital of the world, it remains a vital share of the market to United.  As per Crain’s, United service in and out of Newark includes 56 international destinations and 77 domestic destinations. Currently, it boasts an average of 418 flights per day, carryingroughly 50,800 passengers. “We have the highest number of wide-body flights out of Newark because it’s such a hot-spot destination,” said Fleet.