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Word broke yesterday that United Airlines was putting bigger regional jets – Embraer 175s – on its Aspen routes. This was surprising since the airport doesn’t support these planes and has blocked attempts to require that they make very modest changes in order to do so. How did United make this happen?
United Airlines plans to begin flying its E175 from Aspen (ASE) to several cities:
• Denver (DEN) starting Dec. 3
• Los Angeles (LAX) starting Dec. 19
• San Francisco (SFO) starting Jan. 7
• Houston (IAH) Dec. 3 to 18
This made no sense because the airport has been fighting the FAA to keep out bigger planes, and no word of any progress forcing them to make changes to support Embraer E-175s had come out.
Precisely because of that battle, United scheduling these regional jets with twice as many first-class seats and an overall better passenger experience was big news. They’d somehow gotten permission!
Except they hadn’t! United says that the new flights are "subject to FAA approval." Normally what aircraft you fly on a domestic route isn’t subject to FAA approval. This means "subject to the FAA prevailing and making the airport accept these planes."
Put another way, announcing the bigger planes is just a way to signal that United wants to fly them – meant as ammunition in the ongoing fight over whether the airport has to be an airport at all (much like Santa Monica; Naples; Westchester; Boulder et al – local NIMBYs in wealthy neighborhoods who don’t want the noise or the outside people).
And once approval finally comes there will be a lag in starting the service because special pilot training is required for Aspen airport operations.
Aspen may eventually get larger regional jets with more first-class seats but United’s announcement was likely both premature and strategic.
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