Photo credit to Ms. P on flickr
At this stage, it’s still not known. But a lot is hanging in the balance.
What is known, thanks to some expert reporting by NorthJersey.com, is that the Port Authority of New York & New Jersey – the body assigned to directing and empowering New York’s three major airports – was issued a subpoena last month demanding the personal travel records of former chairman David Samson (who turns up in a Google image search looking specifically like a chairman). United Airlines, too, has been handed a subpoena, and evidence seems to say that the suspicion is founded regarding United operating non-stop service from Newark to Columbia, South Carolina specifically for Samson.
If true, what would this mean? Serious repercussions for United, and for the greater New York air travel sphere, for starters. The peripheral fallout would be far-reaching as well. But is it even true? As we wait for a legally binding answer, let’s revisit the facts:
- From November 2012- April 2014, United, Newark’s largest carrier, operated non-stop service from Newark Liberty Airport to Columbia Metropolitan Airport every Thursday evening, retracing that route back to Newark each Monday
- David Samson worked his post as Port Authority Chairman from the New York area, while maintaining a home with his wife in Aiken, South Carolina
Then, the narratives begin to merge:
- Transit-wise, Columbia, South Carolina is a random city of about 130,000 – and also roughly 50 miles from Samson’s Aiken home.
- The United route was serviced by 50-seater Embraer 145 planes no more than half-full, on average, over a year and a half per federal aviation records
- During his time as chairman, Samson definitively spent “many weekends” in Columbia, connecting his two homes as a passenger on the United shuttle in question
- During this same period, the Port Authority and United were in “regular negotiations” about such matters as the PATH train link to Newark Liberty and flights to Atlantic City
Now let’s kick things up a notch:
- An unnamed source recalls Samson referring to the flight as “the chairman’s flight“
- The route was cut for good on April 1 of 2014, literally three days after Samson resigned in the heat of the George Washington Bridge scandal of last year
So yes, the internet, and NorthJersey.com, and the minds driving this federal investigation, might be right. The exact consequences of such a conclusion, while unknown, would threaten to unfasten New York aviation from the status quo (which, interestingly, the Port Authority is currently considering doing as it weighs the removal of LaGuardia’s “perimeter rule,” which would hurt United). Fliers – and New Yorkers – stay tuned.