About four years after withdrawing from New York-JFK, United is looking at ways to reestablish itself at the bustling Queens airport.
United will get access to slots for up to seven daily round trips at JFK through its “Blue Sky” partnership with New York-based JetBlue, but CEO Scott Kirby sees the airline growing its operations beyond that. In an interview with CNBC published on Sunday, Kirby said United could eventually acquire slots from carriers whose connections are no longer turning a profit.
“We got a bunch of irons in the fire to try to find ways to do it,” he told the outlet.
Kirby did not say how many slots United might look to acquire, or what routes it might serve from JFK.
United has not had a substantial presence at JFK in years. It first terminated service there in 2015, shifting transcontinental and international long-haul operations to Newark, New Jersey. The airline returned to JFK in 2021 using slots it acquired during the COVID-19 pandemic, but it withdrew once again in late 2022.
JFK is one of three fully slot-controlled airports in the U.S., the others being LaGuardia and Reagan National. Because the airports are tightly regulated, it can be especially difficult for carriers to establish or grow a presence there.
Kirby touched on several other topics with CNBC, including United’s embrace of artificial intelligence and proposed mergers with Delta and American Airlines, both of which came to light earlier this year. He confirmed that both rival carriers turned down his approaches, but said the business logic behind such large-scale linkups is sound.
The CEO said a merger would be one way for United to expand in the Southeast U.S. and South America.
United is also expected to announce several new international routes later this week. Kirby did not give any hints about those connections and said his team does not tell him ahead of time about route announcements because “they’re afraid I’ll spill the beans, which is fair.”
