Nov. 11—United Airlines is suspending daily service from Manchester to Washington Dulles International Airport early next year, said Manchester-Boston Regional Airport officials, who over the past few months have welcomed new destinations and a new airline.
Dulles is in northern Virginia, about 25 miles west of the nation's capital. The service to and from Manchester will end Jan. 4, six months after it started, when the carrier returned to the airport following a one-year break prompted by the pandemic.
United will continue serving Manchester with twice-daily flights to Newark, N.J., a major hub for the carrier.
Airport Director Ted Kitchens said the suspended service is a result of workforce shortages and aircraft availability.
"This is just a compounding of everything we've been hearing throughout the entire economy," he said. "We just happen to be the one that just got cut in this instance."
The shortages of pilots and technicians began before the pandemic. Boeing estimates 612,000 new pilots, 626,000 new maintenance technicians and 886,000 new cabin crew members are needed to fly and maintain the global commercial fleet over the next 20 years.
Early on in the pandemic, layoff and furloughs further reduced the number of pilots. Some decided to leave on their own.
"It is still important to remember there is a pandemic going on," Kitchens said. "The business travel really hasn't come back the way that I thought a lot of airlines at the beginning of the year or maybe the middle of year thought they would have at this point because of the delta variant."
In October, United launched flights between Manchester and Newark. Those twice-daily flights will continue past Jan. 4, but are subject to change. The company is considering upgrading the 50-seat regional jets usedon that route with 70-seaters, according to a post on Facebook.
Spirit Airlines also launched flights to Orlando and Fort Lauderdale in Florida in October. Flights to Fort Myers and Tampa will start this month.
Kitchens wrote a memo to Mayor Joyce Craig and the board of aldermen about the United move.
"We are not alone in these cuts, as United has ceased operations completely in numerous markets across the country and reduced flying to many of their hubs from regional markets — even some as large as San Antonio," he wrote.
Kitchens in an interview also mentioned Fayetteville, Ark., the airport closest to Walmart's and Tyson Foods' headquarters.
"You have some pretty heavy hitters there," he said.
United pulled out of at least 11 smaller regional airports altogether.
The nation's capital is still accessible from MHT: American Airlines flies to Reagan National Airport and Southwest to Baltimore-Washington.
"Clearly this is not the news we want to hear, and not news that I like to share, but United said that this decision is due to aircraft availability and crew shortages with their regional carrier partners," Kitchens wrote. "As such they are focusing their flying on markets that provide the highest return and we simply didn't make the cut. "
Delta Airlines ended its Manchester service in May 2020. Delta has removed its signs located around the airport, but MHT is still listed on its website.
United suspended all service to Manchester in May 2020 as travel dried up during the pandemic. The airline returned in June 2021, first with service to Dulles.
"While we are disappointed to lose a popular market, we are encouraged that United remains committed to serving MHT, and we look forward to Dulles service returning hopefully in the near future," the post read.
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