Lawmakers demand airlines refund customers for coronavirus cancellations
Lawmakers have sent letters to U.S. airlines demanding them to accommodate customers whose flights have been cancelled due to COVID-19.
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American Airlines has become the latest major carrier to drastically slash service to the New York City area amid the region’s swelling number of coronavirus cases.
Starting April 7, American Airlines will be offering an extremely limited number of flights out of LaGuardia Airport (LGA), John F. Kennedy International Airport (JFK), and Newark Liberty International Airport (EWR), reducing service by at least 90 percent at each airport.
“As coronavirus (COVID-19) cases in New York City and the surrounding region continues to increase, along with Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) guidelines for travel to the area, the demand for flights to the New York area is rapidly evaporating,” the senior vice president of American Airlines wrote on Sunday. (iStock)
American Airlines will now operate only eight daily flights out of LGA, three out of JFK and two from EWR. Last April, American Airlines operated 170 out of LGA, 80 out of JFK and 21 out of LGA, on an average day.
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Furthermore, each of these flights will operate between 10 a.m. and 6 p.m. ET, as “turn-only operations with no aircraft or crew remaining overnight,” according to American Airlines. Flights will also have capacity restrictions to help ensure passengers are maintaining social distance.
“As coronavirus (COVID-19) cases in New York City and the surrounding region continue to increase, along with Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) guidelines for travel to the area, the demand for flights to the New York area is rapidly evaporating,” wrote David Seymour, the senior vice president of American Airlines, in a letter to team members on Sunday.
The airline plans to run its new, temporary schedule through May 6.
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American Airlines is hardly the first carrier to drastically cut flights to the New York area. A number of other major carriers made cutbacks to service following a CDC travel advisory warning issued on March 28, which urged residents of New York, New Jersey and Connecticut to refrain from non-essential travel.
Last week, Spirit Airlines suspended service to LGA and EWR, as well as Niagara Falls International Airport, Plattsburg International Airport in upstate New York, and Bradley International Airport in Hartford, Conn. The suspended service will last “at least through May 4,” said a Spirit statement.
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Around the same time, JetBlue, which is headquartered in New York City, announced its own cuts to service in a memo to employees, according to CNBC, cutting its service from around 200 daily flights down to just 40.
On Saturday, United Airlines sent a letter to employees at Newark and LaGuardia airports telling them service would be cut to just 15 daily flights per day out of EWR, and only two per day from LGA, starting that day. The airline was previously operating 139 daily flights out of EWR and 18 out of LGA.
“As the situation in New York and New Jersey worsens, we are taking another major step at Newark and LaGuardia to help keep our employees safe and play our part in helping to mitigate the spread of the outbreak in the Tri-State area,” said Greg Hart, the executive vice president and COO of United Airlines, in a letter shared with employees at both airports.
Delta, too, had confirmed to Fox News that its service had been reduced by over 90 percent at LGA over their planned April schedule, with only 15 daily departures, and reduced by more than 80 percent at JFK, with only 27 departures per day. The carrier is also operating seven daily flights from EWR, which is roughly an 80 percent less than it had planned for April.
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As of early on April 6, the novel coronavirus has infected more than 123,000 and killed over 4,000 in New York.
Fox News' Alexandra Deabler and Alexandra Hein contributed to this report.
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