United Airlines confirmed it will drop Cleveland’s Hopkins International Airport as one of its hubs, saying the airport has lost tens of millions of dollars and hasn’t turned a profit in more than a decade.
The news is a devastating blow to both the city and United – the airline is expected to lay off 470 workers when the flight reductions begin in April.
United said it will still fly 72 daily flights to 20 destinations out of Cleveland, but that represents a 60 percent reduction in flights from the current 199.
In a statement, Ohio. Gov. John Kasich said: “Ever since the merger everyone knew this was a risk, which is why economic development officials for the city, the region and the state have discussed options with United for keeping its presence in Cleveland. This is a disappointing decision and one we disagree with, but a point that United stressed is that demand for air travel from Cleveland remains strong and that they’re maintaining virtually all of their flights to and from major markets.”
The move doesn’t just affect United; many businesses in the city of Cleveland had used United as its airline and encouraged employees to fly United even for leisure travel. City officials are wary that some businesses might follow suit, as MarketPlace.org noted when Delta Air Lines abandoned Cincinnati as a hub. Chiquita Banana quickly left Cincinnati as its headquarters and moved to Charlotte.
Here is the statement United provided to employees and customers:
We have made the difficult decision to significantly reduce our future flying from Cleveland. Although the city of Cleveland has been incredibly supportive of United and has tirelessly worked with us to try to make the hub profitable, there is not enough demand for hub-level connecting traffic, and the hub has not been profitable for over a decade.
While we will stop flying unprofitable flights that depend on connecting traffic, we will continue to fly the profitable flights that cater more to local passengers. We expect to be able to keep almost all of our mainline departures, but will need to reduce our regional departures from Cleveland significantly.
Following the reductions, we plan to offer as many as 72 flights from Cleveland and serve 20 destinations non-stop, including all our domestic hubs and key business airports like New York – LaGuardia, Washington – Reagan and Boston. We will also operate non-stop flights to popular leisure markets, like Fort Lauderdale, Orlando and Tampa. In addition to these non-stop destinations, customers will still have access to almost every destination we fly to today, by connecting through one of our hubs.
The reduction will be done in stages beginning in April. Our customers don’t need to do anything at this time. We will reaccommodate any customer affected by the schedule changes and we will notify those customers of their proposed new itineraries. A customer who booked through a travel agency will receive notification from the agency.
These reductions will mean a reduction in the number of employees at Cleveland. Our team is working to support these employees, and provide answers to their questions and any resources that they may need.
This was an extremely difficult decision, but it is important to note that we will continue to be Cleveland’s leading airline, providing great service to our customers.
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