United Airlines is pulling out of Atlantic City, less than eight months after starting services from its hubs in Chicago and Houston.
It follows a year to forget for AC, which has already seen the closure of four major casinos with the loss of thousands of jobs.
United said the services ‘didn’t meet our expectations’ and will fly on the routes for the last time on December 3.
The South Jersey Transportation Authority and the Port Authority of New York and New Jersey, the airport’s operator, urged United to ‘reconsider its decision to give the service more time to develop.’
United’s pull-out leaves just Spirit Airlines as the only regular scheduled carrier operating services from the airport.
Delta, Air Tran and Canadian carrier WestJet have all had short-lived stays at the airport in recent years before eventually pulling the plug due to poor passenger loadings.
Even during its more prosperous years, Atlantic City International has had a hard time attracting major carriers.
It is hampered by its proximity to the much larger Philadelphia airport – just 60 miles away – which is a major hub for American Airlines-US Airways and an increasingly important international gateway.
