United Airlines has pulled out of Kalamazoo Airport (AZO) as part of a service trimming schedule change affecting a total of eight airports. Limited resources and the negative effects of the pandemic are cited as the primary cause for the departure.
Kalamazoo / Battle Creek Airport (AZO) serves the greater Kalamazoo & Battle Creek townships of Michigan, located in the southwestern portion of the state. United Airlines recently announced schedule changes affecting eight smaller airports across the country as confirmed by The Points Guy’s Zach Griff.
Affected cities include:
- Kalamazoo/Battle Creek, MI
- College Station, TX
- Monroe, LA
- Columbia, MO
- Lansing, MI
- Killeen / Ft Hood, TX
- Evansville, IN
- Mosinee, WI
The eight new airports come on the heels of a previous schedule change where three additional airports were identified as no longer being served by United. These airports include:
- Pierre, SD
- Twin Falls, ID
- Watertown, SD
Many of these airports were served via Skywest but operated as United Airlines flights – a common occurrence at smaller, regional airports.
Craig Williams, the director of AZO airport had this say according to a local CBS NewsChannel out of Michigan, “No airport or community likes a loss of service but the good news for us is the demand is there, so the other airlines have stepped up and added flights to accommodate that.”
Kalamazoo / Battle Creek residents will now be forced to make the drive to Grand Rapids if they want to fly United Airlines or use a different airline, most notably American Airlines or Delta Airlines, both of whom are likely eager to pick up the slack of United leaving these destinations.
According to TPG, service ends on January 3rd and United has indicated they will work with passengers who had previously scheduled flights.
2 comments
You don’t want 50 seaters … this is what you get. CEOs telling everyone how great it is that 50 seaters are going away , they forget to tell you it’s the end of service to your city.
50 seaters are just aging out, and the economics mean that it isn’t worth keeping them around past a certain age.
In any case, several of these markets were served by more than 50 seats per day – AZO, CLL, and MLU were all double-daily (100 seats), while LAN was served by a combination of E175s and CRJs. For the multiple-frequency markets, upgauging to an E175 or a 737-700 wouldn’t be that big of a change in capacity.