On Jan. 22, during United Airlines’ quarterly earnings call, CEO Scott Kirby said it wasn’t profitable for low-cost carriers to operate at SFO and other major airports, the San Francisco Business Times first reported.
“It’s just math,” Kirby said. “This has been driven by economic reality.”
Kirby pointed to the costs of flying into New York’s three major airports per passenger. The airlines are paying $48 per passenger in expenses but charging their passengers an average of $67 for a ticket.
“When an airline is spending 72% of their fare on airport costs, it’s hard for me to imagine that they could ever be profitable in those airports,” Kirby said. “I just don’t see how it’s possible to be a low-cost carrier and fly profitably to New York airports or Chicago or Los Angeles or San Francisco.”
Spokesperson Doug Yakel disagreed with Kirby’s assessment of SFO and pointed to the diversity of airlines at the airport.
“SFO works to attract all types of airlines, including LCCs. In fact, SFO has the third most air carrier diversity of any US airport with over 50 airlines, after JFK and LAX,” SFO spokesperson Yakel said. “These include Breeze, Condor, French Bee, Flair, Frontier, JetBlue, LEVEL, Southwest, Sun Country, and WestJet.”
However, United is the biggest carrier at SFO by far. In 2023, it made up 46.7% of the combined market share of domestic and international flights. Alaska Airlines, the second largest carrier at SFO, had 12.3% of flights.
Kirby has long criticized low-cost carriers. In a June 2024 interview, he said they have a “fundamentally flawed business model.”
“The customers hate it,” Kirby said at the time.
