United Ending Service to Kansas' Capital After Nine Months
United Airlines will end its service to Topeka in September, Topeka is Kansas’ capital city. The airline began flying there just nine months ago. The two daily round-trip flights to Chicago O’Hare will cease on September 2, 2014.
“In short, the Topeka-Chicago service didn’t meet the expectations we anticipated at the time of launch,” United spokesman Rahsaan Johnson tells The Topeka Capital-Journal.
The Capital-Journal says that United’s United Express flights between Topeka and Chicago were only about 49% full. “Only three routes in the United network at Chicago had a lower percentage of seats filled,” the newspaper added.
According to the Capital-Journal, the Metropolitan Topeka Airport Authority granted $1.95 million in revenue guarantees to help secure the UA route, but the low passenger numbers meant the authority depleted their funds by the end of May.
Topeka is approximately 80 miles from Missouri’s Kansas City International Airport, so at least within an hours time (or so) those living in Topeka can get to an airport with regularly scheduled flights.
