Scott Kirby, the chief executive of United Airlines, has outlined ambitious plans to expand at New York’s John F. Kennedy International Airport, with the Scott Kirby United Airlines JFK move underpinned by a freshly announced partnership with JetBlue Airways that will give United access to slots for up to seven daily round-trip flights at the airport beginning in 2027.
United Airlines is the second-most profitable carrier in the United States, sitting behind Delta Air Lines. Kirby took the president’s role at United in August 2016, was promoted to chief executive in May 2020, and has spent the decade since reshaping the airline’s network and commercial strategy.
The JFK plan and what the JetBlue deal means
Kirby told CNBC that United wants to grow its presence at JFK, a congested airport where slots (the permissions to take off and land at specific times) are tightly controlled and hard to come by. The route back in runs through JetBlue. Under a collaboration the two carriers announced, called Blue Sky, JetBlue Airways Corporation will provide United access to JFK slots for up to seven daily round-trip flights beginning in 2027. The arrangement also links the two airlines’ loyalty programmes, allowing customers to earn and use United’s MileagePlus miles and JetBlue’s TrueBlue points across both carriers.
For travellers, the loyalty tie-up is the immediately practical part: points earned on one airline become usable on the other. Slots are the longer game. Kirby said United could also look to acquire slots from carriers that are not flying profitable routes out of JFK. ‘We got a bunch of irons in the fire to try to find ways to do it,’ he told CNBC.
Scott Kirby United Airlines ambitions stretch well beyond New York
United already holds the top position among US carriers for international flying, and according to TradingView News, the airline operates one of the world’s largest airline networks, serving more than 370 destinations across six continents. Kirby wants to extend that reach further. This week, United is set to announce a new batch of international routes, an annual exercise that has previously added destinations including Ulaanbaatar in Mongolia and Bilbao in Spain to its map.
Kirby acknowledged that his team has stopped briefing him in advance on which routes will be unveiled. ‘They no longer tell me in advance because they’re afraid I’ll spill the beans, which is fair,’ he said.
South America and the south-eastern United States are two areas where Kirby said United has gaps that are difficult to close by growing organically. He identified Miami International Airport as the best base for serving South America, noting that American Airlines held more than 60% of passenger enplanements there in the 2025 fiscal year, according to airport data. Filling those gaps on a stand-alone basis, he said, is hard.
That is part of the rationale Kirby offered for floating megamerger ideas with both Delta and American over the past year. Delta’s president, Peter Carter, told CNBC at an industry conference in June that he does not see a merger or acquisition in Delta’s future. People familiar with the matter, speaking on the condition of anonymity, said Kirby had approached Delta and was turned down, as The Wall Street Journal first reported. American, meanwhile, publicly rejected a merger approach from United this spring. American’s chief executive Robert Isom told CNBC in late June: ‘At the end of the day, we spend time looking at things that have a chance of happening. We don’t spend a lot of time pursuing impossibilities.’
Kirby told CNBC his position has not changed and he is not interested in acquiring a smaller carrier. ‘Everything I say would require a willing partner,’ he said. When pressed on antitrust concerns, he argued that objections rest on a premise that aviation is a commodity, and that Delta and United have differentiated themselves through routes, cabin products and other offerings.
On the domestic front, the 59-year-old executive flew to Washington to meet President Donald Trump and unveil a $22.5 billion revamp of Washington Dulles International Airport, a hub he said he stopped the company from closing when he first arrived in 2016. The airline also considered closing its base at Los Angeles International Airport at the same time; that too stayed open.
Artificial intelligence came up as a priority for the period ahead. Kirby said AI tools for both employees and customers should make travel smoother and improve reliability. He wants flight delay information communicated to passengers in plain language rather than technical jargon. ‘I firmly believe in no excuses, and so we don’t make excuses,’ he said. In the first half of the year, United ranked behind Delta and Alaska Airlines for on-time arrivals, according to the US Department of Transportation.
Asked about his long-term plans, Kirby said his goal is to ensure United never goes through another round of furloughs. ‘My job is to set the company up so none of you ever have to have a sleepless night worrying about your jobs,’ he told staff. The Blue Sky slot access deal with JetBlue, set to begin in 2027, gives the Scott Kirby United Airlines JFK expansion a concrete first foothold and a firm date to work towards.
