Pilot shortage forcing changes at United Airlines, University Park Airport. Here’s what to expect
Due to a shortage of pilots, United Airlines is making significant changes at University Park Airport and other regional airports — and, as a result, local passengers will see a noticeable shift in March.
According to United, routes to and from Washington-Dulles International near D.C. will be temporarily suspended starting March 4 to reduce strain on the hub. In the route’s place, United will instead start two daily roundtrip flights from University Park Airport to another hub in Newark (N.J.) Liberty International.
Similar changes are being made at more than a dozen other regional markets, including the airports at Harrisburg, Philadelphia and Wilkes-Barre/Scranton. United’s local flights to Chicago will remain unchanged.
“United shared with us that they intend to restore service to Washington-Dulles Int’l in 2023,” Bryan Rodgers, director of the University Park Airport, said in a written statement. “Whether service to Newark Liberty Int’l will remain if service to Washington-Dulles Int’l is restored is unknown.”
Even before the pandemic, a future shortage of pilots was widely seen as a concern. A 2019 study by management consulting firm Oliver Wyman found 62% of airlines listed such a shortage as a key risk. More recently, that same firm projected a global gap of 34,000 pilots by 2025 as the pandemic has not helped matters.
“There has been a looming pilot shortage for the last decade in the United States, and going through COVID it became an actual pilot shortage,” United CEO Scott Kirby said earlier this month at a senate hearing. “So all of us, particularly our regional partners, simply don’t have enough airplanes to fly. We have almost 100 airplanes effectively grounded right now — regional aircraft — because there’s not enough pilots to fly them, which means we can’t at the moment fly to all the small communities that we would like to. It’s really about not having enough pilots.”
It was not immediately known how the changes at University Park Airport might impact costs, if at all. Although Washington-Dulles International is frequently used by local passengers as a hub for connections — something Newark Liberty International will take over — those looking for a nonstop flight to Washington D.C. will be out of luck for the foreseeable future.
In a statement, Rodgers remained hopeful by adding, if the flights to Newark perform strongly, it’s possible United could keep that destination at University Park Airport once it resumes flights to Washington-Dulles.
But outside of the vague timeline of resuming by 2023, it’s unknown exactly when that could be.
